Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, United States.
J Psychosom Res. 2012 Jul;73(1):1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012.03.007. Epub 2012 May 15.
For individuals who ruminate, or mentally rehearse past stressful events, the physiological effects of a stressor may be longer lasting. This is well-supported within the cardiovascular domain. In the context of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and cortisol, the results are inconsistent. This review summarizes key theoretical and methodological issues that contribute to these mixed findings among the 15 studies to date that have examined the association between rumination and cortisol.
State measures of rumination were consistently linked to increased cortisol concentrations. Stress-related rumination questionnaires were often positively associated with cortisol, whereas depression-related rumination scales predicted lower cortisol concentrations or were unrelated to cortisol. Rumination manipulations in the laboratory (e.g., ruminative self-focused writing tasks compared to distraction writing tasks) influenced cortisol concentrations, but often did not increase cortisol relative to baseline values. Studies that utilized social-evaluative stressor tasks to examine the relationship between rumination and cortisol levels generally showed that rumination predicted greater cortisol reactivity or delayed recovery. Results from studies examining rumination and basal cortisol or the cortisol awakening response were inconsistent.
The ways in which researchers conceptualize and assess rumination and the associated cortisol response influences the association between rumination and cortisol. Suggestions for future studies in this area of research are provided.
对于那些反刍或在心理上重演过去压力事件的人来说，应激源的生理效应可能持续时间更长。这在心血管领域得到了很好的支持。在下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺 (HPA) 轴和皮质醇的背景下，结果并不一致。这篇综述总结了关键的理论和方法问题，这些问题导致迄今为止检查反刍与皮质醇之间关联的 15 项研究中存在这些混合结果。
状态反刍测量与皮质醇浓度增加一致相关。与应激相关的反刍问卷通常与皮质醇呈正相关，而与抑郁相关的反刍量表则预测皮质醇浓度较低或与皮质醇无关。实验室中的反刍操作（例如，与分心写作任务相比的反刍自我关注写作任务）会影响皮质醇浓度，但通常不会相对于基线值增加皮质醇。使用社会评价应激任务来检查反刍与皮质醇水平之间关系的研究通常表明，反刍预测皮质醇反应性更大或恢复延迟。检查反刍与基础皮质醇或皮质醇觉醒反应之间关系的研究结果不一致。
研究人员概念化和评估反刍和相关皮质醇反应的方式影响反刍和皮质醇之间的关联。为该研究领域的未来研究提供了建议。
