Psychoneuroendocrinology

Children and families from socioeconomically marginalized background experience high levels of stress, especially persistent chronic stress, due to unstable housing, employment, and food insecurity. Although consistent evidence supports a stress-obesity connection, little research has examined the potential moderation role of stress in childhood obesity interventions. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how chronic stress (hair cortisol) moderated the effects of a healthy lifestyle intervention on improving behavioral and anthropometric outcomes among 95 socioeconomically marginalized parent-child dyads...

Previous research has shown a decrease in serum testosterone levels in male patients with depression. In recent years, the results of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to improve depression have been mixed. Using the classic CUMS model, we induced depressive-like behaviors in rats and observed a decrease in their serum testosterone levels along with an increase in androgen receptor expression in the hippocampus. We then performed castration and sham surgery on male rats and found that testosterone deprivation led to the manifestation of depressive-like behavior that could be ameliorated by TRT...

Laboratory stress tests typically administer stress acutely, ranging from 3 to 15 minutes. However, everyday stressors usually last longer than ten minutes (e.g., examination stressors, work stressors, and social stressors. Moreover, in some studies, it may be relevant to induce stress for a longer period to affect certain psychological or physiological parameters. To this end, we developed a novel stress test that intends to induce psychosocial stress for 90 minutes. The Leuven Prolonged Acute Stress Test (L-PAST) combines physical (hand immersion in cold water), cognitive (mental arithmetic), and psychosocial (social evaluation and feelings of failure) stress elements of two well-known laboratory stress tests, the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST) and the Montreal Imaging Stress Test (MIST)...

BACKGROUND: Adversity suffered in childhood may profoundly affect aging over the subsequent life cycle. The field of childhood adversity and aging has amassed a certain number of publications, but there are no bibliometric studies in this field. METHODS: Publications in 10 years on childhood adversity and aging were searched in the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric tools were used to analyze and visualize these publications by country, institution, journal, author, keyword, research area, and co-citation...

BACKGROUND: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in the therapeutic action of antidepressants and possibly in the pathophysiology of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Clinical studies of peripheral blood levels of BDNF in MDD have provided conflicting results, and there are also conflicting reports regarding the predictive value of peripheral BDNF levels for antidepressant treatment response. The present study investigated the association between serum BDNF levels, the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265), clinical characteristics and SSRI treatment response...

Harsh parenting has been shown to increase the risk of physical and mental health problems in later life. To improve our understanding of these risks and how they can be mitigated, we investigated associations of harsh parenting with a clinically relevant biomarker, epigenetic age deviation (EAD), using data from a randomized-control trial of the Incredible Years (IY) parenting program. This study included 281 children aged 4-8 years who were screened for heightened externalizing behavior and whose parents were randomly allocated to either IY or care-as-usual (CAU)...

OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma may contribute to poor lifelong health in part through programming of the HPA-axis response to future life stressors. To date, empirical evidence shows an association of childhood trauma with dysregulation of the HPA-axis and blunted cortisol reactivity to acute stressors. Here, we conduct an initial examination of childhood trauma as a moderator of changes over time in perceived stress levels and HPA-axis response to a major chronic stressor in adulthood. METHODS: Participants were 83 maternal caregivers of children newly diagnosed with cancer who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and who, over the year following their child's cancer diagnosis, had hair samples collected up to 7 times for the assessment of cortisol and completed monthly measures of perceived stress...

BACKGROUND: The risk of preterm birth (PTB) increases when experiencing stress during pregnancy. Chronic stress has been associated with a dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, for which hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is a promising biomarker. However, previous studies on the association between HCC and PTB yielded inconsistent results. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized previous studies on the association between maternal HCC before and during pregnancy and spontaneous PTB...

Recent research shows prominent effects of pregnancy and the parenthood transition on structural brain characteristics in humans. Here, we present a comprehensive study of how parental status and number of children born/fathered links to markers of brain and cellular ageing in 36,323 UK Biobank participants (age range 44.57-82.06 years; 52% female). To assess global effects of parenting on the brain, we trained a 3D convolutional neural network on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images, and estimated brain age in a held-out test set...

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory processes could potentially impact both mood and suicide risk, however, the relationship between cytokines and suicidal ideation remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between plasma levels of cytokines and suicidal ideation in population with major depressive disorders (MDD). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed to assess the peripheral plasma levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in 88 Chinese Han first-episode drug-naïve MDD patients...

The present pilot study assessed the effects of multi-session intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in 17 treatment resistant depressed inpatients (TRDs) showing cortisol non-suppression to the overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST) at baseline (i.e., maximum post-DST cortisol [CORmax ] level > 130 nmol/L). After 20 iTBS sessions, the DST was repeated in all TRDs. At baseline, post-DST CORmax levels were higher in TRDs compared to healthy control subjects (HCs; n = 17) (p < 0...

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence that early life stress (ELS) can influence the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increase maladaptive behaviors in adolescence, less attention has been paid to the role of the coordinated effects of the two primary adrenal hormones, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), in these associations. METHODS: 138 typically developing adolescents (76 females) reported the stressful events experienced during childhood and early adolescence across 30 domains...

INTRODUCTION: Adverse environments during pregnancy impact neurodevelopment including cognitive abilities of the developing children. The mediating biological alterations are not fully understood. Maternal stress may impact the neurotrophic regulation of the offspring as early as in utero and at birth. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is essential for neurodevelopment. Short-term higher levels of BDNF in mice upon stressors associate with lower BDNF later in life, which itself associates with depression in animals and humans...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

INTRODUCTION: Selective attention to salient emotional information can enable an advantage in the face of danger. The present study aims to investigate the influence of the stress neuromodulators, norepinephrine and cortisol, on selective attention processes to fearful faces and its neuronal activation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design. 167 healthy men between 18 and 35 years (mean [SD] age: 25.23 [4.24] years) participated in the study...

OBJECTIVE: Depressive symptoms following birth are common and can have adverse effects for mothers, children, and families. Changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation during pregnancy may be implicated in the development of postpartum depressive symptoms, particularly changes in placental corticotropinreleasing hormone (pCRH). However, few studies have tested how dynamic pCRH changes over pregnancy relate to postpartum depressive symptoms. This preregistered investigation tests associations of both pCRH levels and changes from early to late pregnancy with postpartum depressive symptoms...

Peripartum mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) affect 15-20% of peripartum women and are well known to disrupt infant caregiving. A recent study in humans reported that anxiety and depressive symptoms were alleviated by peripartum treatment with the probiotic, Lactocaseibacillus rhamnosus HN001. The current study determined the effects of chronic Lactocaseibacillus rhamnosus HN001 (HN001) treatment on postpartum affective and caregiving behaviors in a laboratory rodent model. Female rats were given probiotic overnight in their drinking water, or untreated water, from the first day of pregnancy through postpartum day 10...

BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder (ED) with high mortality rates and limited response to existing treatments, prompting the need to identify effective agents and adjuncts. There is evidence for an emerging role for the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in the pathophysiology of AN, with studies showing a perturbed oxytocinergic system in patients with AN. Preliminary evidence has demonstrated that intranasal OT (IN-OT) can produce anxiolytic effects in AN, as well as reducing concern about eating, and dysfunctional attentional biases related to the disorder...