Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-tdptf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-20T06:44:21.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Daily cortisol, stress reactivity and psychotic experiences in individuals at above average genetic risk for psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

D. Collip ,
N. A. Nicolson ,
M. Lardinois ,
T. Lataster ,
J. van Os  and
I. Myin-Germeys
D. Collip
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
N. A. Nicolson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
M. Lardinois
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
T. Lataster
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
J. van Os
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands King's College London, King's Health Partners, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
I. Myin-Germeys*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
*
*Address for correspondence: Prof. Dr. I. Myin-Germeys, Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616 (VIJV1), 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. (Email: i.germeys@maastrichtuniversity.nl)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis abnormalities have been found in patients with a psychotic disorder and first-degree relatives of patients with a psychotic disorder react with subtle increases in non-clinical psychotic experiences and negative emotions in the face of everyday stress. The current study investigated whether HPA axis functioning is altered in individuals at above average genetic risk for psychotic disorder, examining diurnal cortisol profiles, cortisol reactivity to daily stressors and the association between HPA axis activity and subclinical psychotic experiences.

Method

Participants included siblings of patients with a psychotic disorder (n=60) and a healthy comparison group (n=63). The Experience Sampling Method (a structured diary technique) was employed to assess stress, psychotic experiences, negative affect and salivary cortisol repeatedly in the flow of daily life.

Results

Multi-level analyses revealed higher diurnal cortisol levels and heightened cortisol reactivity to negative daily events in siblings compared with controls. Diurnal cortisol slope did not differ between the two groups, but momentary increases in psychotic experiences and negative affect were associated with increased cortisol in the sibling group.

Conclusions

Findings support altered HPA axis activity in individuals at above average genetic risk for psychotic disorder, as evidenced by higher diurnal cortisol levels and increased cortisol reactivity to daily stress. Results also suggest a dynamic association between cortisol secretion and the intensity of psychotic-like experiences and negative emotions in daily life, although the direction of this association remains to be elucidated.

Keywords

Cortisoldaily stressHPA axismomentary assessmentnegative affectpsychosissiblings
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 11 , November 2011 , pp. 2305 - 2315
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albus, M, Ackenheil, M, Engel, RR, Muller, F (1982). Situational reactivity of autonomic functions in schizophrenic patients. Psychiatry Research 6, 361–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, NC, Flaum, M, Arndt, S (1992). The Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History (CASH). An instrument for assessing diagnosis and psychopathology. Archives of General Psychiatry 49, 615–623.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
APA (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Bernstein, DP, Stein, JA, Newcomb, MD, Walker, E, Pogge, D, Ahluvalia, T, Stokes, J, Handelsman, L, Medrano, M, Desmond, D, Zule, W (2003). Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse & Neglect 27, 169–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breier, A, Wolkowitz, OM, Doran, AR, Bellar, S, Pickar, D (1988). Neurobiological effects of lumbar puncture stress in psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers. Psychiatry Research 25, 187–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brenner, K, Liu, A, Laplante, DP, Lupien, S, Pruessner, JC, Ciampi, A, Joober, R, King, S (2009). Cortisol response to a psychosocial stressor in schizophrenia: blunted, delayed, or normal? Psychoneuroendocrinology 34, 859–868.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Csikszentmihalyi, M, Larson, R (1987). Validity and reliability of the Experience-Sampling Method. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 175, 526–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dallman, MF, Akana, SF, Strack, AM, Scribner, KS, Pecoraro, N, La Fleur, SE, Houshyar, H, Gomez, F (2004). Chronic stress-induced effects of corticosterone on brain: direct and indirect. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1018, 141–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Bellis, MD, Chrousos, GP, Dorn, LD, Burke, L, Helmers, K, Kling, MA, Trickett, PK, Putnam, FW (1994). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation in sexually abused girls. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 78, 249–255.Google ScholarPubMed
Delespaul, P, deVries, M, van Os, J (2002). Determinants of occurrence and recovery from hallucinations in daily life. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 37, 97–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, D, Garety, PA (2003). Connecting neurosis and psychosis: the direct influence of emotion on delusions and hallucinations. Behavioral Research and Therapy 41, 923–947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garner, B, Pariante, CM, Wood, SJ, Velakoulis, D, Phillips, L, Soulsby, B, Brewer, WJ, Smith, DJ, Dazzan, P, Berger, GE, Yung, AR, van den Buuse, M, Murray, R, McGorry, PD, Pantelis, C (2005). Pituitary volume predicts future transition to psychosis in individuals at ultra-high risk of developing psychosis. Biological Psychiatry 58, 417–423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, JM, Seidman, LJ, Makris, N, Ahern, T, O'Brien, LM, Caviness, VS Jr., Kennedy, DN, Faraone, SV, Tsuang, MT (2007). Hypothalamic abnormalities in schizophrenia: sex effects and genetic vulnerability. Biological Psychiatry 61, 935–945.Google Scholar
Green, AS, Rafaeli, E, Bolger, N, Shrout, PE, Reis, HT (2006). Paper or plastic? Data equivalence in paper and electronic diaries. Psychological Methods 11, 87–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
G.R.O.U.P. (2010). Evidence that familial liability for psychosis is expressed as differential sensitivity to cannabis: an analysis of patient-sibling and sibling-control pairs. Archives of General Psychiatry 68, 138–147.Google Scholar
Hanssen, M, Bak, M, Bijl, R, Vollebergh, W, van Os, J (2005). The incidence and outcome of subclinical psychotic experiences in the general population. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 44, 181–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ, Kohrt, BA, Worthman, CM (2005). Estimating between- and within-individual variation in cortisol levels using multilevel models. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30, 698–714.Google Scholar
Jacobs, N, Myin-Germeys, I, Derom, C, Delespaul, P, van Os, J, Nicolson, NA (2007). A momentary assessment study of the relationship between affective and adrenocortical stress responses in daily life. Biological Psychology 74, 60–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, N, Nicolson, NA, Derom, C, Delespaul, P, van Os, J, Myin-Germeys, I (2005). Electronic monitoring of salivary cortisol sampling compliance in daily life. Life Sciences 76, 2431–2443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jansen, LM, Gispen-de Wied, CC, Gademan, PJ, De Jonge, RC, van der Linden, JA, Kahn, RS (1998). Blunted cortisol response to a psychosocial stressor in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 33, 87–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jansen, LM, Gispen-de Wied, CC, Kahn, RS (2000). Selective impairments in the stress response in schizophrenic patients. Psychopharmacology (Berlin) 149, 319–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koolschijn, PC, van Haren, NE, Hulshoff Pol, HE, Kahn, RS (2008). Hypothalamus volume in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia. European Neuropsychopharmacology 18, 312–315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laruelle, M, Abi-Dargham, A (1999). Dopamine as the wind of the psychotic fire: new evidence from brain imaging studies. Journal of Psychopharmacology 13, 358–371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marcelis, M, Cavalier, E, Gielen, J, Delespaul, P, van Os, J (2004). Abnormal response to metabolic stress in schizophrenia: marker of vulnerability or acquired sensitization? Psychological Medicine 34, 1103–1111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meltzer, HY, Koenig, JI, Nash, JF, Gudelsky, GA (1989). Melperone and clozapine: neuroendocrine effects of atypical neuroleptic drugs. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (Suppl.) 352, 24–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mittal, VA, Dhruv, S, Tessner, KD, Walder, DJ, Walker, EF (2007). The relations among putative biorisk markers in schizotypal adolescents: minor physical anomalies, movement abnormalities, and salivary cortisol. Biological Psychiatry 61, 1179–1186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mondelli, V, Dazzan, P, Gabilondo, A, Tournikioti, K, Walshe, M, Marshall, N, Schulze, KK, Murray, RM, McDonald, C, Pariante, CM (2008). Pituitary volume in unaffected relatives of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology 33, 1004–1012.Google Scholar
Mondelli, V, Dazzan, P, Hepgul, N, di Forti, M, Aas, M, d'Albenzio, A, di Nicola, M, Fisher, H, Handley, R, Marques, TR, Morgan, C, Navari, S, Taylor, H, Papadopoulos, A, Aitchison, KJ, Murray, RM, Pariante, CM (2010). Abnormal cortisol levels during the day and cortisol awakening response in first-episode psychosis: the role of stress and of antipsychotic treatment. Schizophrenia Research 116, 234–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muck-Seler, D, Pivac, N, Mustapic, M, Crncevic, Z, Jakovljevic, M, Sagud, M (2004). Platelet serotonin and plasma prolactin and cortisol in healthy, depressed and schizophrenic women. Psychiatry Research 127, 217–226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myin-Germeys, I, Delespaul, P, van Os, J (2005 a). Behavioural sensitization to daily life stress in psychosis. Psychological Medicine 35, 733–741.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myin-Germeys, I, Marcelis, M, Krabbendam, L, Delespaul, P, van Os, J (2005 b). Subtle fluctuations in psychotic phenomena as functional states of abnormal dopamine reactivity in individuals at risk. Biological Psychiatry 58, 105–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myin-Germeys, I, Nicolson, NA, Delespaul, PA (2001 a). The context of delusional experiences in the daily life of patients with schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 31, 489–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myin-Germeys, I, Oorschot, M, Collip, D, Lataster, J, Delespaul, P, van Os, J (2009). Experience sampling research in psychopathology: opening the black box of daily life. Psychological Medicine 39, 1533–1547.Google Scholar
Myin-Germeys, I, van Os, J, Schwartz, JE, Stone, AA, Delespaul, PA (2001 b). Emotional reactivity to daily life stress in psychosis. Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 1137–1144.Google Scholar
Nicolson, N (2007). Measurement of cortisol. In Handbook of Physiological Research Methods in Health Psychology(Luecken, L. J. and Gallo, L. C.), pp. 37–74. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.Google Scholar
NIMH Genetics Initiative (1992). Family Interview for Genetic Studies (FIGS). National Institute of Mental Health: Rockville, MD.Google Scholar
Pariante, CM (2008). Pituitary volume in psychosis: the first review of the evidence. Journal of Psychopharmacology 22, 76–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peeters, F, Nicolson, NA, Berkhof, J (2004). Levels and variability of daily life cortisol secretion in major depression. Psychiatry Research 126, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Read, J, van Os, J, Morrison, AP, Ross, CA (2005). Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 112, 330–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryan, MC, Sharifi, N, Condren, R, Thakore, JH (2004). Evidence of basal pituitary-adrenal overactivity in first episode, drug naive patients with schizophrenia. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29, 1065–1070.Google Scholar
Soliman, A, O'Driscoll, GA, Pruessner, J, Holahan, AL, Boileau, I, Gagnon, D, Dagher, A (2008). Stress-induced dopamine release in humans at risk of psychosis: a [11C]raclopride PET study. Neuropsychopharmacology 33, 2033–2041.Google Scholar
StataCorp (2009). STATA/SE Statistical Software, Release 11. StataCorp: College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Stone, AA, Shiffman, S, Schwartz, JE, Broderick, JE, Hufford, MR (2002). Patient non-compliance with paper diaries. British Medical Journal 324, 1193–1194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sulon, J, Demey-Ponsart, L, Beauduin, P, Sodoyez, JC (1978). Radioimmunoassay of corticosterone, cortisol and cortisone: their application to human cord and maternal plasma. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 9, 671–676.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tarullo, AR, Gunnar, MR (2006). Child maltreatment and the developing HPA axis. Hormones and Behavior 50, 632–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thewissen, V, Bentall, RP, Oorschot, M, Campo, JA, van Lierop, T, van Os, J, Myin-Germeys, I (2010). Emotions, self-esteem, and paranoid episodes: an experience sampling study. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, doi: 10.1348/014466510X508677, published online 2 March 2011.Google Scholar
Thompson, KN, Phillips, LJ, Komesaroff, P, Yuen, HP, Wood, SJ, Pantelis, C, Velakoulis, D, Yung, AR, McGorry, PD (2007). Stress and HPA-axis functioning in young people at ultra high risk for psychosis. Journal of Psychiatric Research 41, 561–569.Google Scholar
van Eck, M, Berkhof, H, Nicolson, N, Sulon, J (1996). The effects of perceived stress, traits, mood states, and stressful daily events on salivary cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine 58, 447–458.Google Scholar
van Venrooij, JA, Fluitman, SB, Lijmer, JG, Kavelaars, A, Heijnen, CJ, Westenberg, HG, Kahn, RS, Gispen-de Wied, CC (2010). Impaired neuroendocrine and immune response to acute stress in medication-naive patients with a first episode of psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbq062, published online 17 June 2010.Google Scholar
van Winkel, R, Stefanis, NC, Myin-Germeys, I (2008). Psychosocial stress and psychosis. A review of the neurobiological mechanisms and the evidence for gene-stress interaction. Schizophrenia Bulletin 34, 1095–1105.Google Scholar
Walker, E, Mittal, V, Tessner, K (2008). Stress and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in the developmental course of schizophrenia. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 4, 189–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, EF, Brennan, PA, Esterberg, M, Brasfield, J, Pearce, B, Compton, MT (2010). Longitudinal changes in cortisol secretion and conversion to psychosis in at-risk youth. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 119, 401–408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, EF, Walder, DJ, Reynolds, F (2001). Developmental changes in cortisol secretion in normal and at-risk youth. Development and Psychopathology 13, 721–732.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walsh, P, Spelman, L, Sharifi, N, Thakore, JH (2005). Male patients with paranoid schizophrenia have greater ACTH and cortisol secretion in response to metoclopramide-induced AVP release. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30, 431–437.Google Scholar
Wik, G (1995). Effects of neuroleptic treatment on cortisol and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylethyl glycol levels in blood. Journal of Endocrinology 144, 425–429.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, IC, Rabe-Hesketh, S, Woodruff, PW, David, AS, Murray, RM, Bullmore, ET (2000). Meta-analysis of regional brain volumes in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 157, 16–25.Google Scholar