Cortisol awakening response in late pregnancy in women with previous or ongoing depression

Pregnancy is associated with increased basal cortisol levels, and decreased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a measure of HPA-axis reactivity which has been reported to be increased in patients with ongoing depressive disorder and in individuals with remitted depression. In this study, we investigated HPA-axis reactivity in pregnant women with ongoing or previous depression. The CAR was assessed by measurement of salivary cortisol at awakening and 15, 30, and 45 min post-awakening. Based on structured psychiatric interviews and repeated measurements of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, 134 women were included in one of the three groups: never depressed (n=57), depressed prior to the current pregnancy (n=39), and depressed during the current pregnancy (n=38). Given the prior findings of increased CAR in non-pregnant depressed subjects, we hypothesized that an ongoing or previous depression would result in a higher CAR. Contrary to our hypothesis, a mixed models analysis failed to yield significant group differences. Thus, our results suggest that never depressed pregnant women and women with depression during pregnancy have similar cortisol awakening responses. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the cortisol awakening response does not differ between currently healthy women with and without experience of a depressive episode during late pregnancy.