Childhood parental loss and adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function

Several decades of research link childhood parental loss with risk for major depression and other forms of psychopathology. A large body of preclinical work on maternal separation and some recent studies of humans with childhood parental loss have demonstrated alterations of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function that could predispose to the development of psychiatric disorders.

Eighty-eight healthy adults with no current Axis I psychiatric disorder participated in this study. Forty-four participants experienced parental loss during childhood, including 19 with a history of parental death and 25 with a history of prolonged parental separation. The loss group was compared with a matched group of individuals who reported no history of childhood parental separation or childhood maltreatment. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and questionnaires and the dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone (Dex/CRH) test. Repeated measures general linear models were used to test the effects of parental loss, parental care, gender, and age on the hormone responses to the Dex/CRH test.

Parental loss was associated with increased cortisol responses to the test, particularly in men. The effect of loss was moderated by levels of parental care; participants with parental desertion and very low levels of care had attenuated cortisol responses. Adrenocorticotropic hormone responses to the Dex/CRH test did not differ significantly as a function of parental loss.

These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that early parental loss induces enduring changes in neuroendocrine function.