Department of Clinical Psychophysiology, Institute of Psychobiology, University of Trier, Johanniterufer 15, 54290, Trier, Germany.
Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health, 29, rue Henri Koch, L-4354 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; Department of Immunology, Institute of Psychobiology, University of Trier, Johanniterufer 15, D-54290 Trier, Germany.
Child Abuse Negl. 2018 Nov;85:137-144. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.04.002. Epub 2018 May 30.
The negative health effects of early life adversity (ELA) continue long into adulthood. Changes in the physiological response to psychosocial stressors have been proposed to mediate this effect. However, many previous studies have come to contradicting conclusions as to whether ELA induces a long-term increase or decrease in stress reactivity. Therefore, we tested the association of ELA exposure and adult stress reactivity in a sample of early life adoptees and controls. Two previously validated stressful elements (bilateral feet CPT and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT)) were combined in an extended Cold Pressor Test (CPT). This test was performed on 22 participants who had experienced severe ELA (separation from biological parents, institutionalization, and adoption in early childhood), and in 22 age-matched control participants. A prior history of ELA was associated with blunted reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Cohen´s d = 0.680). Cardiovascular reactivity remained unchanged, and affective reactivity (self-report ratings) were increased in participants exposed to ELA compared to the control group (range Cohen´s d: 0.642-0.879). Our results suggest that the activity of the HPA axis reactivity was inhibited in ELA participants. Importantly, cardiovascular stress responsiveness was not affected by ELA. This separation of the HPA axis and cardiovascular stress responses may best be explained by ELA selectively enhancing central feedback-sensitivity to glucocorticoids, but preserving cardiovascular/ autonomic stress reactivity.
早期生活逆境（ELA）对健康的负面影响会持续到成年期。生理对心理社会应激源的反应变化被认为是介导这种效应的因素。然而，许多先前的研究对于 ELA 是否会导致应激反应长期增加或减少得出了相互矛盾的结论。因此，我们在一组早期生活被收养者和对照组中测试了 ELA 暴露与成人应激反应的相关性。两个先前经过验证的应激元素（双侧足底 CPT 和 Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task（PASAT））被组合在一个扩展的冷加压测试（CPT）中。这项测试在 22 名经历过严重 ELA（与亲生父母分离、机构化和在幼儿期被收养）的参与者和 22 名年龄匹配的对照组参与者中进行。先前的 ELA 史与下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴反应迟钝有关（Cohen's d=0.680）。心血管反应性保持不变，与对照组相比，暴露于 ELA 的参与者的情感反应（自我报告评分）增加（范围 Cohen's d：0.642-0.879）。我们的结果表明，HPA 轴反应的活性在 ELA 参与者中受到抑制。重要的是，ELA 并未影响心血管应激反应性。HPA 轴和心血管应激反应的这种分离最好通过 ELA 选择性增强糖皮质激素的中枢反馈敏感性来解释，但保留心血管/自主应激反应性。
