Xu Youyun, Li Jifeng, Xie Qiaozhen, Deng Huihua
Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Children's Impairment and Intervention, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, Nanjing, China.
Psych J. 2019 Mar;8(1):147-157. doi: 10.1002/pchj.248. Epub 2018 Oct 16.
Hair cortisol has been proposed as a temporally integrated measure of systemic cortisol suitable for studies of chronic stress. We compared hair cortisol and depressive and anxiety symptoms between two groups of healthy male adolescents differing in exposure to chronic stress, one attending regular high school (n = 33) and the other incarcerated for 11-867 days in juvenile detention (n = 29), and examined the association of hair cortisol and depressive and anxiety symptoms among all adolescents. Hair cortisol was determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, and depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by the Self-Rating Depression and Anxiety Scales. Hair samples (1-cm segments closest to the scalp at the posterior vertex) were collected 2 weeks after psychometric testing. Results revealed that incarcerated adolescents showed significantly more anxiety and depression symptoms, and higher hair cortisol levels than high school adolescents (ps < .05). The regression results revealed that hair cortisol levels could negatively predict depression symptoms (p < .05) but could not predict anxiety symptoms (p > .05) among all adolescents from the two groups. In summary, incarcerated adolescents experienced significantly higher chronic stress than high school adolescents. Hair cortisol showed a negative association with depression symptoms and no association with anxiety symptoms among adolescents with different exposures to chronic stress.
头发皮质醇已被提议作为一种适用于慢性应激研究的系统性皮质醇的时间整合指标。我们比较了两组健康男性青少年的头发皮质醇水平以及抑郁和焦虑症状，这两组青少年在慢性应激暴露方面存在差异，一组是就读于普通高中的学生（n = 33），另一组是在少年拘留所被监禁11 - 867天的青少年（n = 29），并研究了所有青少年中头发皮质醇与抑郁和焦虑症状之间的关联。头发皮质醇通过液相色谱串联质谱法测定，抑郁和焦虑症状通过自评抑郁量表和焦虑量表进行测量。在心理测量测试2周后收集头发样本（后顶叶最靠近头皮的1厘米段）。结果显示，被监禁的青少年比高中青少年表现出明显更多的焦虑和抑郁症状，以及更高的头发皮质醇水平（p < 0.05）。回归结果显示，在两组所有青少年中，头发皮质醇水平可以负向预测抑郁症状（p < 0.05），但不能预测焦虑症状（p > 0.05）。总之，被监禁的青少年经历的慢性应激明显高于高中青少年。在不同程度暴露于慢性应激的青少年中，头发皮质醇与抑郁症状呈负相关，与焦虑症状无关联。
