Smith Sean W, Johnson Paul R, Sullivan William E, Mauzy Courtney R, Arroyo Antúnez Beatriz E, Craig Andrew R, Howard Alexandra R, Nguyen Thanh, Hoffman Chelsea, Adavikolanu Samhitha, Roane Henry S
Biobehavioral Health Unit, 655 Madison St., Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical University, 750 East Adams St., Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Apr 6;15(4):475. doi: 10.3390/bs15040475.
Behavior-analytic treatments successfully reduce individuals' destructive behavior (e.g., self-injurious behavior, aggression, property destruction, disruption); however, there is limited research evaluating these treatments' effects on individuals' physiological stress responses, even though stress can have significant negative impacts on quality of life. Research from other fields has demonstrated that salivary cortisol concentration is a valid biomarker for stress, so researchers could potentially use this biomarker to assess the stress of individuals with limited communication repertoires who also engage in destructive behavior. The purpose of this research was to assess changes in salivary cortisol concentrations as a biomarker for stress with two participants to evaluate whether conditions that evoke destructive behavior induce stress relative to conditions that do not evoke destructive behavior. For one participant, salivary cortisol concentrations tended to increase following exposures to stimuli that evoked destructive behavior compared to conditions that did not evoke destructive behavior. The other participant had elevated salivary cortisol concentrations across all conditions. Salivary cortisol may be a useful biomarker for evaluating physiological stress as an outcome measure during research on the assessment and treatment of destructive behavior.
行为分析疗法成功减少了个体的破坏性行为（例如，自我伤害行为、攻击行为、财产破坏行为、扰乱行为）；然而，尽管压力会对生活质量产生重大负面影响，但评估这些疗法对个体生理应激反应影响的研究却很有限。其他领域的研究表明，唾液皮质醇浓度是一种有效的应激生物标志物，因此研究人员有可能使用这种生物标志物来评估那些沟通能力有限且还存在破坏性行为的个体的应激状况。本研究的目的是评估作为应激生物标志物的唾液皮质醇浓度的变化，以两名参与者为对象，评估引发破坏性行为的条件相对于未引发破坏性行为的条件是否会诱发应激。对于一名参与者，与未引发破坏性行为的条件相比，在接触引发破坏性行为的刺激后，唾液皮质醇浓度往往会升高。另一名参与者在所有条件下的唾液皮质醇浓度都有所升高。在关于破坏性行为评估和治疗的研究中，唾液皮质醇可能是一种有用的生物标志物，可用于评估作为结果指标的生理应激。
