Low cortisol and risk for PTSD in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors
Low cortisol and risk for PTSD in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors
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DOI：
10.1176/appi.ajp.157.8.1252
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发表时间：
2000-08-01
影响因子：
17.7
通讯作者：
Dolan, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Yehuda, R;Bierer, LM;Dolan, S
目的：本研究考察了皮质醇与创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）推定危险因素之间的关系，研究对象为PTSD发展风险增加的受试者样本。方法：对35名大屠杀幸存者的成年后代和15名非大屠杀幸存者后代的健康对照受试者进行24小时尿皮质醇排泄测量。研究对象的临床症状、是否存在包括创伤后应激障碍在内的精神诊断，以及父母是否存在创伤后应激障碍。结果：低皮质醇水平与父母的创伤后应激障碍和受试者终生的创伤后应激障碍显著相关，而当前的精神病学诊断而非创伤后应激障碍与较高的皮质醇水平相对相关，但不显著。在所有研究组中，父母均患有PTSD和终生患有PTSD的后代皮质醇水平最低。结论：父母创伤后应激障碍是推定的创伤后应激障碍的危险因素，似乎与后代的低皮质醇水平有关，即使后代终生没有创伤后应激障碍。研究结果表明，PTSD患者的低皮质醇水平可能是与父母PTSD相关的易感性标志，也是与急性或慢性PTSD症状相关的状态相关特征。
Objective: The study examined the association between cortisol and putative risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of subjects at increased risk for the development of PTSD.Method: Twenty-four-hour urinary cortisol excretion was measured in 35 adult offspring of Holocaust survivors and 15 healthy comparison subjects who were not offspring of Holocaust survivors. Subjects were also characterized with regard to clinical symptoms, presence or absence of psychiatric diagnoses including PTSD, and presence or absence of PTSD in their parents.Results: Low cortisol levels were significantly associated with both PTSD in parents and lifetime PTSD in subjects, whereas having a current-psychiatric diagnosis other than PTSD was relatively, but nonsignificantly, associated with higher cortisol levels. Offspring with both parental PTSD and lifetime PTSD had the lowest cortisol levels of all study groups.Conclusions: Parental PTSD, a putative risk factor for PTSD, appears to be associated with low cortisol levels in offspring, even in the absence of lifetime PTSD in the offspring. The findings suggest that low cortisol levels in PTSD may constitute a vulnerability marker related to parental PTSD as well as a state-related characteristic associated with acute or chronic PTSD symptoms.