Childhood trauma exposure is associated with the risk of eating disorders (EDs) in adulthood. The biological basis of this link may involve a persistent dysregulation of the endogenous stress response system, in particular the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, as a consequence of early life maltreatment.

Adult patients with EDs and history of childhood trauma may have a dysregulation of the HPA axis that could be different from EDs patients without childhood trauma exposure.

In order to assess the effects of childhood trauma experiences on HPA-axis activity in EDs, we compared the salivary cortisol response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) of adult patients with EDs according to their history of childhood trauma.

Twenty-seven EDs patients and 13 healthy women participated in the study. Salivary cortisol responses during exposure to the TSST was measured. Participants also completed the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) and eating-related psychopathological rating scales.

According to CTQ, 15 individuals with EDs reported childhood maltreatment whereas 12 EDs patients and all the healthy women did not experience childhood maltreatment. Compared with the control group, non-maltreated EDs patient group exhibited a slightly enhanced cortisol response to TSST, whereas the group of non-maltreated EDs patients showed a normal cortisol response. Moreover, EDs patients with childhood maltreatment exhibited statistically significant blunting of cortisol compared to non-maltreated ones.

The present findings support the evidence that, in patients with EDs, there is a dysregulation of HPA-axis activity and that childhood trauma exposure may contribute to this dysregulation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Although the available evidence strongly supports an association between depression and coronary heart disease (CHD), the possible biological link between these two conditions still remains to be clarified. The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the main endogenous system mediating the stress response and changes in cortisol secretion have been associated with depressed mood in patients with CHD. Therefore, the study of the correlation between cortisol levels and depressed mood in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients could help to clarify the nature of the relationship between ACS and the risk to develop a depressive syndrome.

We aimed to explore the relationships between HPA axis activity and depressed mood in ACS patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the cortisol awakening response (CAR) is associated and/or predict depressive symptoms in patients with an ACS.

Patients admitted to an ACS ward were asked to fill in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and to collect saliva samples in the morning to measure their CAR. All the procedures were carried out within 1 week after an ACS. Patients were asked again to fill in the BDI six months after their ACS.

A lower CAR was associated with higher BDI scores after 6 months from an ACS.

Our preliminary results suggest that hypoactivity of the HPA axis in the first week of an ACS may predict more severe depressive symptoms after 6 months from the ACS.