Awakening cortisol response in relation to psychosocial profiles and eating behaviors

Awakening cortisol response was measured in 78 men and women, on 3 mornings within a 2-month period. Psychosocial and eating behavior variables were assessed using self-administered questionnaires on anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), body esteem (Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults), and eating behaviors (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire and Eating Disorder Inventory-2). Data on food intake and appetite sensations were also collected using a buffet-type meal test, a 3-day food record and visual analog scales measured before and after a standardized breakfast meal test. In women, high anxiety, disinhibition and hunger scores, as well as poor body esteem and a high weight preoccupation, were negatively correlated to ACR. The factor that appeared to account the most for this inverse relation was emotional susceptibility to disinhibition (r=-0.61, p=0.003). The latter was also negatively associated with the satiety quotient for fullness in response to the standardized breakfast (r=-0.48, p=0.010). In men, ACR was negatively associated with flexible (r=-0.33, p=0.020) and strategic (r=-0.28, p=0.049) restraint behaviors. This study highlights a gender-dependent relationship between ACR, hence the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and eating behaviors and psychological profiles.