Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Blumenstraße 8, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany.
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2018 Apr;90:52-60. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.02.003. Epub 2018 Feb 6.
The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) and its end product, the glucocorticoid cortisol, has been shown to be associated with psychopathology. Determining cortisol concentrations in hair (HCC) allows the investigation of long-term HPAA-activity. There is a significant scarcity of studies investigating the link between HCC and psychopathology and quality of life in child and adolescent samples. In addition, as the HPAA constitutes a feedback system enabling adaption to environmental demands, it is important to consider the socio-environmental context that the children grow up in. We therefore investigated the associations between child HCC and psychopathology/quality of life and compared these links in two groups of five to 12-year-olds: children living with mothers who report experiences of early life maltreatment (ELM) (high-risk group) and children whose mothers did not report any ELM (low-risk group). We expected that, under conditions of a high-risk environment, elevated HPAA-functioning would be associated with low levels of psychopathology and high levels of quality of life in children. Under low-risk conditions, elevated HPAA-functioning would be associated with high levels of psychopathology and low levels of quality of life in children. For the complete sample of N = 130 children, three-months HCC did not significantly predict child psychopathology or quality of life. However, there was a significant moderating effect of group membership: In the high-risk group, high levels of HCC were significantly associated with high levels of self-reported quality of life. In the low-risk group, there was no association between HCC and self-reported quality of life. For child psychopathology, in the low-risk group, high levels of HCC were significantly associated with high levels of teacher reported behavior problems, whereas in the high-risk group, the association did not reach significance. Our results underline the importance of accounting for the social environment children grow up in when investigating the link between HCC and child psychopathology and quality of life.
下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴 (HPAA) 及其终产物皮质醇与精神病理学有关。测定头发中的皮质醇浓度 (HCC) 可以研究长期的 HPAA 活性。目前，关于 HCC 与儿童和青少年样本中的精神病理学和生活质量之间的联系的研究非常少。此外，由于 HPAA 构成了一个使机体适应环境需求的反馈系统，因此考虑儿童成长的社会环境非常重要。因此，我们调查了儿童 HCC 与精神病理学/生活质量之间的关联，并在两组 5 至 12 岁的儿童中比较了这些关联：一组是母亲报告有早期生活虐待 (ELM) 经历的儿童（高风险组），另一组是母亲没有报告任何 ELM 的儿童（低风险组）。我们预计，在高风险环境下，HPAA 功能升高与儿童的低水平精神病理学和高水平生活质量有关。在低风险条件下，HPAA 功能升高与儿童的高水平精神病理学和低水平生活质量有关。对于完整的 130 名儿童样本，三个月的 HCC 并没有显著预测儿童的精神病理学或生活质量。然而，组别的成员身份存在显著的调节作用：在高风险组中，高水平的 HCC 与自我报告的高水平生活质量显著相关。在低风险组中，HCC 与自我报告的生活质量之间没有关联。对于儿童精神病理学，在低风险组中，高水平的 HCC 与教师报告的行为问题的高水平显著相关，而在高风险组中，这种关联没有达到显著性。我们的结果强调了在研究 HCC 与儿童精神病理学和生活质量之间的联系时，考虑儿童成长的社会环境的重要性。
