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The Relationship between Cortisol Activity during Cognitive Task and Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Clusters.
Hongxia Duan1,2, Li Wang3, Liang Zhang1
1Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Plos One
|December 3, 2015
Summary
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) negative affect symptoms correlate with higher cortisol levels during cognitive tasks. This finding supports distinguishing negative affect from anhedonia symptom clusters in PTSD research.
Area of Science:
- Neuroendocrinology
- Psychiatry
- Trauma Studies
Background:
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is increasingly understood through dimensional models, with a recent 6-factor model based on DSM-5 criteria.
- A significant knowledge gap exists regarding the relationship between specific PTSD symptom clusters and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity during low-stress cognitive tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between salivary cortisol levels during cognitive tasks and a contemporary phenotypic model of PTSD symptomatology.
- To examine how distinct PTSD symptom clusters relate to HPA axis activity in earthquake survivors.
Main Methods:
- Salivary cortisol was collected from 89 adult earthquake survivors during cognitive tasks.
- The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) assessed overall PTSD severity and six distinct symptom clusters.
- Regression analyses explored associations between PTSD symptom clusters and cortisol profiles.
Main Results:
- The negative affect symptom cluster score showed a positive association with cortisol levels before and during cognitive tasks.
- No significant association was found between anhedonia or other PTSD symptom clusters and cortisol levels.
Conclusions:
- Elevated cortisol levels preceding and during cognitive tasks may be specifically linked to the negative affect symptom cluster of PTSD.
- These findings support the proposed distinction between negative affect and anhedonia symptom clusters within the 6-factor PTSD model.
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