Psychoendocrine Studies Research Articles

Examination stress as an ecological inducer of cortisol and psychological responses to stress in undergraduate students

The purpose of the present study was to investigate basic methodological issues related to the usage of an examination stress protocol in studies of psychoneuroendocrinology. In the present study, 57 undergraduate students served as participants. All subjects provided salivary samples and completed psychological inventories during a low examination stress period and again during a high examination stress period. Salivary samples were analyzed for cortisol.Three major findings were observed. First, the examination stress protocol proved to be an effective trigger of elevations in both psychological measures of stress and in cortisol levels. Second, sex differences were observed in cortisol levels, such that males showed an elevation in cortisol during the high examination stress session whereas females did not. Finally, no significant correlations were observed between elevations in psychological measures of stress and elevations in cortisol levels.These findings suggest that the examination stress protocol used in the present study effectively elevated both psychological stress and cortisol levels. Furthermore, these findings suggest that there are biological differences in how males and females respond to stress. Finally, no evidence was found to suggest a relationship between psychological and hormonal levels of stress. Together, these findings suggest the need to better define and consider the implications of both the specific measures of stress being used and individual differences in the subject samples in psychoendocrine studies.

Insulin-like growth factor I is suppressed in socially subordinate male baboons.

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I is a potent growth-promoting and anabolic hormone with major roles in cellular growth and differentiation, protein metabolism and muscle physiology, wound healing, erythropoiesis, and immune stimulation. Few, if any, studies have examined social or psychological factors that could give rise to individual differences in IGF-I levels. As part of a long-term psychoendocrine study of a population of male baboons living freely in a national reserve in East Africa, we examined the relationship between social rank and IGF-I concentrations. We observed that social subordinance was associated with a relative suppression of IGF-I concentrations; no rank-related differences in concentrations of IGF-II or IGF-binding protein were observed. Extensive psychoendocrine literature suggests that the individual differences in IGF-I profiles were a consequence, rather than a cause, of the rank difference. We were able to rule out a number of possible proximal explanations for the rank-IGF-I correlation: 1) the correlation was not a function of age (which involves both an adolescent spurt in IGF-I concentrations as well as a decline in concentrations in aged individuals); 2) the IGF-I suppression in subordinate individuals could not be explained by the basal hypercortisolism typical of such subordinate animals; and 3) neither differences in the quality or quantity of food consumed, in basal testosterone concentrations, nor in genetics could explain the rank difference. Although the mediating mechanisms responsible for this rank difference were not discernible in this study, the magnitude of difference in IGF-I levels among baboons of differing ranks might be of physiological significance.

Relationships between hormonal profile and novelty seeking in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder

This study examines relationships between hormonal levels and novelty seeking in a group of 27 Vietnam veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Novelty seeking in the veteran sample, measured by the Cloninger Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), was almost twice as high as previously published norms. A distinctive pattern of significant positive correlations was found between novelty seeking scores and serum total triiodothyronine (T3), free T3, the T3/free thyroxine (FT4) ratio, urinary norepinephrine and the norepinephrine/cortisol ratio, while a negative correlation was found between novelty seeking scores and urinary cortisol levels. The findings were confirmed by t test analyses of high vs low novelty seeking subgroups and do not appear to be related simply to the severity of PTSD. These preliminary findings indicate the need to include measures of characterological traits in psychoendocrine studies of PTSD and to investigate their possible usefulness in subtyping this disorder.

Body positions and movement patterns in female patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Female patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH; N = 33; 11–41 years), simple-virilizing (SV) patients ( N = 19), salt-wasting (SW) patients ( N = 13), and sister controls ( N = 14) were compared with regard to their body positions and movement patterns. Data collection comprised both self assessments and mothers' assessments using 20 sex-dimorphic items with corresponding “more masculine” and “more feminine” versions for each variable, represented in photographs (forced-choice approach). Primarily based on mothers' assessments, single-item results suggested slightly more masculine positions and patterns for female CAH patients compared to sisters, for SW patients more distinct than for SV patients. Results from an 11-item scale (“motor behavior”, α = 0.59) revealed differences between SW (more masculine) and SV patients for self assessments ( P, one-tailed, < 0.09); sisters were in an intermediate position closer to the SV patients. According to mothers' assessments, the CAH patient group as a whole differed (more masculine) from sisters ( P < 0.06); this finding was mainly accounted for by the SW group ( P < 0.04). Complex analyses on the relationship of motor behavior and intervening variables (e.g., postnatal androgenizatioin, onset of puberty, menarche, height, weight, sexual orientation) revealed very few significant results. Findings rather suggested organizational hormonal effects on body positions and movements prenatally; they are in line with main results from the interview section of the Hamburg CAH study (e.g., “Gender-related behavior”). An approach of this kind seems to be justified for investigating motor behavior in future psychoendocrine studies.

The Use of Psychoendocrine Strategies in Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder1

An overview is presented of a pilot psychoendocrine study of PTSD inpatients in comparison with several subgroups of schizophrenic and affective disorder patients. Using a hormonal profile including Cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine, testosterone, and thyroxine, it was found that the mean values for the PTSD group were at or near the extreme end of the range for every hormone measured, i.e., relatively low for Cortisol and high for the remaining hormones. The possible clinical meaning of these findings is considered in the light of prior psychoendocrine research on chronic stress. The hormonal alterations in PTSD appear to be persistent and suggest the possibility of being linked largely to traits or character structure, perhaps particularly to cognitive variables related to defense and coping mechanisms, as reviewed in detail for each hormonal system. There appears to be a potential for a fruitful union between the traumatic stress and psychoendocrine fields and some future strategies for developing and strengthening such a union are suggested.

Serum testosterone levels in post‐traumatic stress disorder inpatients

AbstractIn a longitudinal clinical psychoendocrine study, serum testosterone levels (ng/dl) were measured at 2‐week intervals during the course of hospitalization in 34 male psychiatric inpatients in four diagnostic groups, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (endogenous type) (MDD‐E), paranoid schizophrenia (PS), and bipolar I disorder‐manic (BP), as well as in a group of normal male control subjects (CONT). A oneway analysis of variance revealed that the mean (±SE) testosterone levels were significantly higher (p &lt; 0.0002) in the PTSD (578 ± 59), PS (571 ± 49), and CONT (494 ± 24) groups than in the MDD‐E (331 ± 47) and BP (351 ± 31) groups. The same group differences were significant in the first sample (p &lt; 0.02), while in the last sample the values were significantly higher (p &lt; 0.0004) in the PTSD (623 ± 66) and PS (566 ± 72) groups than in the CONT (482 ± 26), BP (353 ± 61), and MDD‐E (291 ± 52) groups. These preliminary findings, then, indicate that in spite of considerable depressive symptomatology, PTSD patients do not show the relatively low testosterone levels seen in major depressive disorder patients, but instead align more closely with the schizophrenic patients with regard to the pituitary‐gonadal system. There is also an indication that chronic basal testosterone levels in PTSD patients may be elevated in comparison with normal subjects. The possible link suggested by the psychoendocrine literature between testosterone levels and trait factors, particulary paranoid style, in these patient groups is considered, as is the potential application of these findings for multidimensional approaches to the development of improved biologic criteria for psychtric diagnosis.

Serum testosterone levels in post-traumatic stress disorder inpatients

In a longitudinal clinical psychoendocrine study, serum testosterone levels (ng/dl) were measured at 2-week intervals during the course of hospitalization in 34 male psychiatric inpatients in four diagnostic groups, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (endogenous type) (MDD-E), paranoid schizophrenia (PS), and bipolar I disorder- manic (BP), as well as in a group of normal male control subjects (CONT). A one-way analysis of variance revealed that the mean (± SE) testosterone levels were significantly higher (p<0.0002) in the PTSD (578±59), PS (571±49), and CONT (494±24) groups than in the MDD-E (331±47) and BP (351±31) groups. The same group differences were significant in the first sample (p<0.02), while in the last sample the values were significantly higher (p<0.0004) in the PTSD (623±66) and PS (566±72) groups than in the CONT (482±26), BP (353±61), and MDD-E (291±52) groups. These preliminary findings, then, indicate that in spite of considerable depressive symptomatology, PTSD patients do not show the relatively low testosterone levels seen in major depressive disorder patients, but instead align more closely with the schizophrenic patients with regard to the pituitary-gonadal system. There is also an indication that chronic basal testosterone levels in PTSD patients may be elevated in comparison with normal subjects. The possible link suggested by the psychoendocrine literature between testosterone levels and trait factors, particularly paranoid style, in these patient groups is considered, as is the potential application of these findings for multidimensional approaches to the development of improved biologic criteria for psychiatric diagnosis.

A psychoendocrine study in male paranoid schizophrenics with delusional ideas of homosexual content.

The serum prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T) and estradiol (E) levels were investigated in a group of male paranoid schizophrenics with delusional ideas of homosexual content, in a group of male paranoid schizophrenics without delusional ideas of homosexual content, and in a group of healthy, male heterosexual subjects. Only male paranoid schizophrenics with delusional ideas of homosexual content had significantly lower serum PRL values and significantly higher serum E levels than those of the age-matched group of normal, male heterosexual controls; also, these patients tended to have higher (though not to a statistically significant degree) serum LH and T levels than those of normal controls. Findings of this study are discussed within the framework of the possible involvement of endocrine factors in the occurrence of delusional ideas of homosexual content in male patients with paranoid schizophrenia.

A psychoendocrine study of premenstrual tension syndrome: A model for endogenous depression?

We studied 42 women with severe Premenstrual Tension Syndrome (PMTS) and compared their clinical features and adrenocortical function with those seen in major depressive disorders. Self-report scales demonstrated that PMTS was very distressing, but the disturbance did not meet the RDC for Major Depressive Disorder — endogenous subtype. Twenty-four hour urinary free cortisol estimation did not indicate cortisol hypersecretion and abnormal Dexamethasone Suppression Test results occured much less frequently than is usual in endogenous depression. Adrenocortical function did not differ significantly between follicular and premenstrual phases. PMTS does not appear to be a psychoendocrine model for endogenous depression.

Sex hormones and male homosexuality in comparative perspective

Animal research has demonstrated the modifiability of sex-dimorphic mating behavior by hormone and brain manipulation, especially in subprimate mammals, and has led to radical attempts at treating human homosexuality by psychosurgery and to the suggestion of preventing homosexuality by prenatal hormone manipulation. This article reviews psychoendocrine studies of human homosexuality — the effects of hormone treatments on sexual orientation, the association of clinical endocrine syndromes with homosexuality, sex hormone measurements in homosexual subjects, and the issue of prenatal endocrine influences on human sexual orientation. The available studies, often deficient in methodology, have produced conflicting and largely negative results as to a hormonal theory of human homosexuality. Unfortunately, there is hardly any overlap between psychoendocrine studies on sexual orientation in man and on sex-dimorphic mating behavior in subhuman mammals that would allow systematic comparisons. A major alternate theory of human homosexuality has been derived from learning theory, and this position has been strengthened by the recent development of partially successful behavior therapy approaches to the change of sexual orientation. There is currently a lack of animal experimentation that could assist in formulating a learning-based etiological theory of human homosexuality. Since the influence of hormones relative to learning on sexual behavior appears to diminish along the evolutionary scale, animal models need to include manipulation of both hormonal and learning conditions.

Androgens and male sexual function: a review of human studies.

The scope of this article will be a review and brief discussion of recently gathered information on androgens and sexual behavior in men. It will include experimental observations on the covariance between androgens, mainly testosterone, and sexual functioning in normal heterosexual men and studies on sexual dysfunction and homo-sexual behavior. The effects of castration, hypogonadal conditions, hormonal replacement, and endogenous testosterone variations on sexual behavior are examined. Further psychoendocrine studies, are necessary to evaluate the role of gonadal hormone production in impotency. Current pharmacological research does not furnish specific evidence, that the administration of androgens or preparations that stimulate the secretion of endogenous androgens have beneficial effects on functional impotence. After reviewing the studies on male homosexuality and androgen levels, the article concludes that it has not been established that homosexual men are characterized by abnormalities in plasma testosterone.

Limbic system-adrenal cortex regulation in depression and schizophrenia.

Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] activation and abnormal HPA regulatory mechanisms have been observed in depressed patients. Depressed and schizophrenic patients were studied to determine whether the HPA disturbances in depression are specific to this psychiatric illness or are mediated by nonspecific breakdown of psychological defense mechanisms. Despite the presence of severe ego defense breakdown and considerable secondary depressive symptomatology, the schizophrenic patients had normal HPA function. The depressed patients had elevated urine free cortisol excretion, high CSF cortisol levels, and did not show normal HPA suppression in response to dexamethasone. Within the depressed group significant correlations of HPA parameters were obtained with somatic features but not with ego breakdown features. After recovery depressed patients had more normal HPA function. The results indicate that HPA dysfunction can occur in association with primary depressive illness, that a psychoendocrine distinction can be made between primary depressive illness and secondary depressive symptomatology, and that psychological defense breakdown is not related to these neuroendocrine observations. Attention is drawn to the utility of urinary free cortisol measurement as a valuable index of HPA activation in psychoendocrine studies.

Urinary free Cortisol excretion in depression

Urinary free cortisol (UFC) excretion was determined in 60 depressed inpatients and in 35 psychiatric inpatients with other disorders. The depressed patients had high daily UFC values, while the other patients excreted normal amounts. Over 40% of the depressed patients had UFC excretions in the range seen in Cushing's disease, while only 6% of the other patients excreted such high amounts of cortisol. Age and sex differences did not account for the results. Among the depressed patients those with depressive neuroses excreted less than unipolar or bipolar depressives. Following treatment, more normal UFC excretion was found in depressed patients. The estimation of UFC and its clinical utility are discussed in detail. UFC determination is a simple and informative indicator of adrenal cortical activation and its application to psychoendocrine studies is recommended.

Phobia questionnaire responses and urine catecholamines.

MOST .OST psychoendocrine studies of the past have been characterized by comparison of stimulus conditions or clinical behavior ratings with endocrine measures. There are few studies in which objectively scored, self-administered psychological tests and chemical measurement of sympatho-adrenalmedullary output were combined. 1,2 Measurement of affect in psycho endocrine investigation generally has been limited to the broad categories anxiety, anger, elation, and depression, with few attempts at further subdivision. This is a report in which an objective, self-administered psychological test was used in an attempt to define the relationship of urine catecholamines to two subdivisions of anxiety. The specific aim was to find, in urine epinephrine and norepinephrine excretion, a chemical distinction that paralleled the psychological distinction between separation and body-harm anxiety. The research also provided an opportunity to correlate a measure of trait anxiety (as expressed in phobias) with urinary catecholamine excretion, in

Urinary testosterone response to 72-hr. avoidance sessions in the monkey.

Urinary testosterone levels show a biphasic response in association with 72hr. avoidance sessions in the monkey, characterized by an initial decline during avoidance followed by a rebound elevation during the recovery period. The duration of the two response phases, the primary lowering and the secondary elevation, may vary from one experiment to the next, but the general configuration of the response curve remains the same. Similar testosterone response curves were obtained both with a double-isotope derivative and a gas chromatographic method, although the latter method gave considerably lower absolute values. Preliminary data indicate that urinary epitestosterone levels also change in relation to avoidance in a pattern similar to the testosterone response. While the mean testosterone curve closely resembles that previously described for urinary androsterone, etiocholanolone, and dehydroepiandrosterone levels, some instances were noted in the present experiments in which there was at least transitory dissociation between the urinary excretion of testosterone and its metabolites. Future study will be required to determine whether this dissociation may possibly be related to eovariation in urinary volume responses, to relatively greater adrenal contribution to androgen metabolite excretion in some experiments, or to other factors. Preliminary experience with gas chromatographic analysis of other individual 17-ketosteroid compounds indicates that the 11-oxy-17-ketosteroids (C19O3-17-ketosteroids) may show a different response pattern than do androsterone and other C19O2-17-ketosteroid compounds. The pertinence of this observation to the continued use of total urinary 17-ketosteroid determination is discussed, and the need for further psychoendocrine studies of androgen levels with the use of increasingly refined endocrinological methods is emphasized.

Corticosteroids in Depressive Illness

THIS IS the first of two papers focusing on the question, is adrenal cortical function characteristically affected by depressive illness? The present paper will reevaluate the literature on this point in the light of some important control issues. A subsequent paper will report on the results of a longitudinal psychoendocrine study of 20 patients suffering clinical depressions. The problem of adrenal cortical responses in depressive illness has emerged over the past decade as a much more complicated question than it originally seemed. Numerous psychoendocrine studies in the 1950's had demonstrated in both animals and humans that states of emotional stress and arousal were associated with elevations of corticosteroids in blood and urine. 1-3 It seemed only reasonable to expect, then, that depressive illness would also be associated with an adrenal cortical stress response, since clinical depression certainly appeared to be a psychiatric condition associated with

Corticosteroids in depressive illness. II. A longitudinal psychoendocrine study.

THIS PAPER will report a longitudinal psychoendocrine study of three parameters of adrenal cortical function in 20 patients hospitalized for depressive illness. The focus of the research was on the question, is adrenal cortical activity characteristically affected in depressive illness? The preceding paper, reviewing the literature on this subject, concluded that most of the reported data was difficult to interpret because of failure to control for significant factors, such as response to admission to the hospital milieu, interfering medications, and selection of appropriate control comparison data. The present study was designed to reexamine the problem of adrenal cortical function in depressed patients under more rigorously controlled conditions. Methods of Procedure The basic design was to assess the psychiatric state and measure urinary corticosteroids for three 72-hour periods during depressive illness and for two 72-hour periods following recovery in 20 depressed patients hospitalized on

Pituitary adrenal function and depression. An outline for research.

OVER the past two decades, since Selye 1 introduced the concept of the general adaptation syndrome, an impressive body of psychoendocrine studies has described increased 17-hydroxycorticosteroid (17-OHCS) excretion and elevated plasma 17-OHCS levels in association with psychological responses to both naturally occurring and experimentally contrived stress situations. Relatively greater and more sustained increases in indices of pituitary adrenal function have been well documented in some severely depressed patients. The potential now exists to pursue a new level of investigation of the role of pituitary adrenal function in depression, and perhaps in a broader sense, in human behavior. This paper reviews current data relating depression and pituitary adrenal function and proposes an outline for future research in this field. A consideration of the relationship of steroid metabolism to depression suggests three overall questions. (1) Is there evidence that a consistent significant alteration

The gynecologic patient; a psycho-endocrine study.

This is an extremely perceptive monograph. The Endocrine-Psychiatric Clinic, which Sturgis and his group have developed, has shown that a proper gynecologic investigative team requires the cutting gynecologist, the endocrinologist, and the psychiatrist. This monograph is divided into two parts, discussing first those gynecologic problems which cannot be extirpated with the scalpel and which are primarily psychological in nature and, second, those gynecological problems which require surgery, but which will not have a satisfactory end result unless these other talents of the modern space-age gynecologist are employed. More than 50 histories are described in extenso to demonstrate the complete diagnostic survey. This book is a practical working guide for those interested in providing total care for gynecologic patients of all ages. Laboratory determinations are given their due value, but are of help only when combined with the senses of the sympathetically-attuned physician. Increasing ability to diagnose completely the problems of

Reviews: The Gyneeologic Patient: A Psycho‐Endocrine Study

Medical Journal of AustraliaVolume 1, Issue 12 p. 432-433 Review Reviews: The Gyneeologic Patient: A Psycho-Endocrine Study First published: 01 March 1963 https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1963.tb23160.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract The Gyneeologic Patient: A Psycho-Endocrine Study. By S. H. Sturgis: 1962. New York, London: Grune & Stratton. 9ʺ × 6ʺ, pp. 244 with illustrations. Price: $7.75. Volume1, Issue12March 1963Pages 432-433 RelatedInformation