Abstract
This work analyzes the different levels of salivary cortisol in women from the southwest of Spain that were victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) with respect to a control group, assessing for the first time the different concentrations obtained in relation to a worldwide reference standard provided by the CIRCORT meta-global cortisol database. The clinical sample (N = 24) and the control group (N = 25) had an average of 39.12 years (SD = 12.31) and 39.52 years (SD = 11.74), respectively. Cortisol awakening response (CAR) was determined by defining the area under the curve (AUCi). There were no differences between the CAR data of the two populations F (1, 141) = 1.690, p = 0.196, but there was a highly significant difference in the three sampling days, where the clinical sample exceeded the cortisol levels of the CIRCORT database in the evening as compared to the control group (p = 0.004, p = 0.001 and p = 0.000). Salivary cortisol concentration samples taken in the evening were significantly higher than those standardized in the CIRCORT database, from the women victims of IPV as compared to the control group, showing its usefulness as an effective supportive tool for problems such as those triggered by IPV.
Highlights
IntroductionIntimate partner violence (IPV) is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a type of violence that “includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner (i.e., spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, dating partner, or ongoing sexual partner)” [1]
This cascade of physiological responses regulated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) can be altered when confronted with psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [8], which can be triggered in situations of Intimate partner violence (IPV) [9,10]
The state anxiety (S/A) (STAI-S) is defined in a context of “transient emotional state or condition of the human organism characterized by subjective feelings”, while trait anxiety (T/A) (STAI-T) is characterized by a “relatively stable anxious propensity for which subjects differ in their tendency to perceive situations as threatening”
Summary
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a type of violence that “includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner (i.e., spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, dating partner, or ongoing sexual partner)” [1]. Exposure to IPV is associated with psychological stress and stress-related endocrine and immune-inflammatory dysregulations [2,3], some works have exposed that classification guides, such as ICD-11, do not yet adequately capture it [4] Situations of stress, such as those triggered by IPV, are biologically regulated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) [5,6] where the hypothalamus activates in the pituitary gland the release of hormones, such as adenocorticotropin (ACTH), in the blood. This in turn stimulates the suprarenal cortex to release cortisol in the blood, a steroid hormone with a wide spectrum of activity in the body, which can lead to subsequent effects in the brain [7] This cascade of physiological responses regulated by the HPA can be altered when confronted with psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [8], which can be triggered in situations of IPV [9,10]. The salivary cortisol data from a population of women victims of IPV is compared with that of a control population, assessing the different concentrations obtained, for the first time, in relation to the CIRCORT global cortisol database, with the aim of advancing the effective diagnosis of the negative health consequences in female victims of IPV, which to date is still limited [26]
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