Abstract
Background: Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) provide a retrospective examination of long-term cortisol production as a measure of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, one of the major neural systems implicated in mediating the effects of stress on mental illness. However, evidence about the relationship between HCC with stressors and symptoms is scattered. In the present study, we aimed to examine the association between HCC and a wide range of stress-related and transdiagnostic subclinical measures in a sample of non-clinical young adults with a wide distribution of schizotypy.Methods: A total sample of 132 non-clinical young adults recruited at college and technical schools oversampled for schizotypy scores were assessed on distal and proximal stressful experiences, appraisals of stress, traits and symptoms of the affective, psychosis and dissociation spectrums, as well as stress-buffering measures, and provided 3 cm-hair samples.Results: No significant associations were found between HCC and any of the stress-related and subclinical measures. Only suspiciousness and disorganization showed a trend for a positive association with HCC but the magnitude was small.Conclusions: The present findings support previous studies indicating an overall lack of concordance between a broad range of stress-related and (sub)clinical phenotypic measures with hair cortisol. This study examined for the first time the relationship of HCC with the non-clinical expression of the psychosis spectrum, that is, schizotypy, which complements previous studies on clinical high risk and established psychosis and offers a promising strategy for studying possible HPA dysfunctions characterizing the subclinical psychosis continuum without the confounds associated to clinical psychosis.
Highlights
The Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is one of the major neural systems implicated in mediating the effects of stress on mental illness
Suspiciousness and disorganization, both strongly related to affective symptoms, showed a trend toward a significant association with Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), the magnitude was small in both cases
It is likely that the fact that participants were oversampled for schizotypy to ensure sufficient variability in these traits allowed to capture this trend for an association—something that might be missed given the skewed nature of these traits in nonclinical samples
Summary
The Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is one of the major neural systems implicated in mediating the effects of stress on mental illness. This axis acts in response to stressors by releasing glucocorticoid cortisol, thereby affecting brain function and facilitating physiological and behavioral responses to threats. The normal functioning of the HPA axis involves its activation under high stressful situations, and the activation of a negative feedback-loop that stops cortisol secretion in the absence of stressors [1]. Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) provide a retrospective examination of long-term cortisol production as a measure of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, one of the major neural systems implicated in mediating the effects of stress on mental illness. We aimed to examine the association between HCC and a wide range of stress-related and transdiagnostic subclinical measures in a sample of non-clinical young adults with a wide distribution of schizotypy
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