Cole Elli L, Grillo Alessandra R, Vrshek-Schallhorn Suzanne
From the Department of Psychology. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Psychosom Med. 2024 Oct 1;86(8):730-737. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001334. Epub 2024 Jul 15.
Habitual caffeine consumption protects against depression but through unclear mechanisms. Although habitual caffeine use predicts cortisol release in response to other acute stressors (e.g., exercise), this is less examined with lab-based psychosocial stress in healthy adults. Furthermore, caffeine-induced cortisol increases may mask theory-predicted cortisol blunting to robust stress in people with elevated depression risk. In two samples, we tested whether acute (same-day) and habitual caffeine use would predict greater cortisol reactivity to lab-based stress, and whether caffeine would "mask" the effect of a depression risk factor, trait rumination, on blunted cortisol reactivity.
In sample 1, N = 128 emerging adults completed one of three Trier Social Stress Test conditions: nonevaluative control, ambiguously evaluative intermediate, or explicit negative evaluative. In sample 2, N = 148 emerging adults completed either a control or negative evaluative condition.
In both samples, multilevel growth curve modeling indicated that habitual caffeine use ( t = -1.99, p = .048; t = -2.73, p = .007, samples 1 and 2, respectively) but not acute caffeine use predicted heightened cortisol reactivity as a function of condition. In sample 1, the relationship between condition, rumination, and blunted cortisol was evident only in caffeine nonusers, which differed from users ( t = 2.82, p = .005), but in sample 2, the predicted blunting pattern was evident regardless of caffeine use.
The results provide evidence that habitual caffeine use is associated with greater cortisol release under psychosocial lab-based stress and may mask the influence of psychosocial variables; future research should examine whether habitual caffeine-induced cortisol release has behaviorally activating effects that protect against depression.
习惯性摄入咖啡因可预防抑郁症，但其机制尚不清楚。尽管习惯性使用咖啡因可预测对其他急性应激源（如运动）的皮质醇释放，但在健康成年人中，基于实验室的心理社会应激对此的研究较少。此外，咖啡因引起的皮质醇升高可能会掩盖理论上预测的抑郁症风险升高人群对强烈应激的皮质醇钝化反应。在两个样本中，我们测试了急性（同一天）和习惯性咖啡因使用是否会预测对基于实验室应激的更大皮质醇反应性，以及咖啡因是否会“掩盖”抑郁症风险因素——特质性反刍对皮质醇反应性钝化的影响。
在样本1中，128名新兴成年人完成了三项特里尔社会应激测试条件之一：非评价性对照、模糊评价性中间条件或明确负面评价条件。在样本2中，148名新兴成年人完成了对照或负面评价条件。
在两个样本中，多层次生长曲线模型表明，习惯性咖啡因使用（分别在样本1和样本2中，t = -1.99，p = 0.048；t = -2.73，p = 0.007）而非急性咖啡因使用预测了皮质醇反应性随条件的升高。在样本1中，条件、反刍和皮质醇钝化之间的关系仅在不使用咖啡因的人群中明显，这与使用咖啡因的人群不同（t = 2.82，p = 0.005），但在样本2中，无论是否使用咖啡因，预测的钝化模式都很明显。
结果提供了证据，表明习惯性咖啡因使用与基于实验室心理社会应激下更大的皮质醇释放有关，并且可能掩盖心理社会变量的影响；未来的研究应检查习惯性咖啡因诱导的皮质醇释放是否具有预防抑郁症的行为激活作用。
