scholarly journals Effects of short-term cannabidiol treatment on response to social stress in subjects at clinical high risk of developing psychosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 237 (4) ◽  
pp. 1121-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Appiah-Kusi ◽  
N. Petros ◽  
R. Wilson ◽  
M. Colizzi ◽  
M. G. Bossong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Serum Cortisol ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Clinical High Risk ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Intermediate Response ◽  
Harmful Effects

Abstract Rationale Stress is a risk factor for psychosis and treatments which mitigate its harmful effects are needed. Cannabidiol (CBD) has antipsychotic and anxiolytic effects. Objectives We investigated whether CBD would normalise the neuroendocrine and anxiety responses to stress in clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) patients. Methods Thirty-two CHR patients and 26 healthy controls (HC) took part in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and their serum cortisol, anxiety and stress associated with public speaking were estimated. Half of the CHR participants were on 600 mg/day of CBD (CHR-CBD) and half were on placebo (CHR-P) for 1 week. Results One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant effect of group (HC, CHR-P, CHR-CBD (p = .005) on cortisol reactivity as well as a significant (p = .003) linear decrease. The change in cortisol associated with experimental stress exposure was greatest in HC controls and least in CHR-P patients, with CHR-CBD patients exhibiting an intermediate response. Planned contrasts revealed that the cortisol reactivity was significantly different in HC compared with CHR-P (p = .003), and in HC compared with CHR-CBD (p = .014), but was not different between CHR-P and CHR-CBD (p = .70). Across the participant groups (CHR-P, CHR-CBD and HC), changes in anxiety and experience of public speaking stress (all p’s < .02) were greatest in the CHR-P and least in the HC, with CHR-CBD participants demonstrating an intermediate level of change. Conclusions Our findings show that it is worthwhile to design further well powered studies which investigate whether CBD may be used to affect cortisol response in clinical high risk for psychosis patients and any effect this may have on symptoms.

scholarly journals Altered relationship between cortisol response to social stress and mediotemporal function during fear processing in people at clinical high risk for psychosis: a preliminary report

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Davies ◽  
Elizabeth Appiah-Kusi ◽  
Robin Wilson ◽  
Grace Blest-Hopley ◽  
Matthijs G. Bossong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Response ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Clinical High Risk ◽  
Fearful Face ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractEvidence suggests that people at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR) have a blunted cortisol response to stress and altered mediotemporal activation during fear processing, which may be neuroendocrine–neuronal signatures of maladaptive threat responses. However, whether these facets are associated with each other and how this relationship is affected by cannabidiol treatment is unknown. We examined the relationship between cortisol response to social stress and mediotemporal function during fear processing in healthy people and in CHR patients. In exploratory analyses, we investigated whether treatment with cannabidiol in CHR individuals could normalise any putative alterations in cortisol-mediotemporal coupling. 33 CHR patients were randomised to 600 mg cannabidiol or placebo treatment. Healthy controls (n = 19) did not receive any drug. Mediotemporal function was assessed using a fearful face-processing functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm. Serum cortisol and anxiety were measured immediately following the Trier Social Stress Test. The relationship between cortisol and mediotemporal blood-oxygen-level-dependent haemodynamic response was investigated using linear regression. In healthy controls, there was a significant negative relationship between cortisol and parahippocampal activation (p = 0.023), such that the higher the cortisol levels induced by social stress, the lower the parahippocampal activation (greater deactivation) during fear processing. This relationship differed significantly between the control and placebo groups (p = 0.033), but not between the placebo and cannabidiol groups (p = 0.67). Our preliminary findings suggest that the parahippocampal response to fear processing may be associated with the neuroendocrine (cortisol) response to experimentally induced social stress, and that this relationship may be altered in patients at clinical high risk for psychosis.

scholarly journals Beta-adrenergic Modulation of Cognitive Flexibility during Stress

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica K. Alexander ◽  
Ashleigh Hillier ◽  
Ryan M. Smith ◽  
Madalina E. Tivarus ◽  
David Q. Beversdorf
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Locus Ceruleus ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Beta Adrenergic ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Remote Associates Test

Stress-induced activation of the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system produces significant cognitive and behavioral effects, including enhanced arousal and attention. Improvements in discrimination task performance and memory have been attributed to this stress response. In contrast, for other cognitive functions that require cognitive flexibility, increased activity of the LC-NE system may produce deleterious effects. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of pharmacological modulation of the LC-NE system on stress-induced impairments in cognitive flexibility performance in healthy individuals. Cognitive performance, plus psychological and physiological parameters for 16 adults without any history of anxiety disorders, was assessed during four test sessions: stress and no-stress, with each condition tested after administration of propranolol and placebo. The Trier Social Stress Test, a public-speaking and mental arithmetic stressor, was presented to participants for the stress sessions, whereas a similar, but nonstressful, control task (reading, counting) was utilized for the no-stress sessions. Tests of cognitive flexibility included lexical-semantic and associative problem-solving tasks (anagrams, Compound Remote Associates Test). Visuo-spatial memory and motor processing speed tests served as control tasks. Results indicate that (1) stress impaired performance on cognitive flexibility tasks, but not control tasks; (2) compared to placebo, cognitive flexibility improved during stress with propranolol. Therefore, psychological stress, such as public speaking, negatively impacts performance on tasks requiring cognitive flexibility in normal individuals, and this effect is reversed by beta-adrenergic antagonism. This may provide support for the hypothesis that stress-related impairments in cognitive flexibility are related to the noradrenergic system.

scholarly journals Developmental changes in hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal activity over the transition to adolescence: Normative changes and associations with puberty

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan R. Gunnar ◽  
Sandi Wewerka ◽  
Kristin Frenn ◽  
Jeffrey D. Long ◽  
Christopher Griggs
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Sympathetic Modulation ◽  
Pituitary Adrenal Axis ◽  
Depressed Symptoms ◽  
Child Depressive Symptoms

AbstractHome baseline and laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test for Children) measures of salivary cortisol were obtained from 82 participants (40 girls) aged 9, 11, 13, and 15 years. Measures of pubertal development, self-reported stress, parent reports of child depressive symptoms and fearful temperament, and cardiac measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity were also obtained. Significant increases in the home cortisol baselines were found with age and pubertal development. Cortisol stress reactivity differed by age group with 11-year-olds and 13-year-old boys showing blunted reactivity and 9-year-olds, 13-year-old girls, and 15-year-olds showing significant cortisol reactions. Cortisol reactivity correlated marginally with sexual maturation. Measures of sympathetic activity revealed increased sympathetic modulation with age. Higher sympathetic tone was associated with more fearful temperament, whereas greater cortisol reactivity was associated with more anxious and depressed symptoms for girls. The importance of these findings for the hypothesis that puberty-associated increases in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity heightens the risk of psychopathology is discussed.

Genetic moderation of cortisol secretion in Holocaust survivors

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayala Fridman ◽  
Marinus H. van IJzendoorn ◽  
Abraham Sagi-Schwartz ◽  
Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Secretion ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Diurnal Cortisol ◽  
Deletion Variant ◽  
Cortisol Levels

In the current study we tested whether ADRA2B moderates stress regulation of Holocaust survivors as indexed by their diurnal cortisol secretion and cortisol reactivity to a stressor. Salivary cortisol levels of 54 female Holocaust survivors and participants in the comparison group were assessed during a routine day and in response to a stress-evoking procedure (an adapted version of the Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]). ADRA2B did not moderate differences between Holocaust survivors and participants in the comparison group in terms of cortisol reactivity to the TSST. Holocaust survivors with the wildtype ADRA2B, however, displayed higher diurnal cortisol levels than did participants in the comparison group with the same genotype, whereas no difference was found between these groups in carriers of the deletion variant, previously associated with more reexperiencing of traumatic events. Carriers of the deletion variant might have been driven in the long run to resolve their vividly remembered experiences, and therefore currently show less stress dysregulation as evident from their cortisol levels.

Sex Differences in the Cortisol Response to the Trier Social Stress Test in Depressed and Nondepressed Adolescents

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raegan Mazurka ◽  
Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards ◽  
Kate L. Harkness
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Response ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Response To Stress ◽  
Adolescent Period

Two of the most robust findings in depression research are (a) that women are twice as likely to become depressed than men and (b) that stress is an important risk factor for depression. Although sex differences in stress reactivity may be an important determinant of differential risk for depression, few studies have examined sex differences in neurobiological reactivity to stress. The purpose of the current study was to assess sex differences in the HPA axis response to stress in depressed versus healthy controls by comparing the cortisol response to the Trier Social Stress Test in a community sample of adolescents (ages 12–18). Depressed boys showed significantly heightened cortisol reactivity compared with depressed girls, whose response was blunted compared with nondepressed girls. This diverging pattern of cortisol reactivity to stress among depressed girls and boys may help to explain the sex difference in depression prevalence that emerges during the adolescent period.

Cardiovascular and cortisol reactivity and habituation to a virtual reality version of the Trier Social Stress Test: A pilot study

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 1397-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jönsson ◽  
Mattias Wallergård ◽  
Kai Österberg ◽  
Åse Marie Hansen ◽  
Gerd Johansson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity

scholarly journals Life stress and cortisol reactivity: An exploratory analysis of the effects of stress exposure across life on HPA-axis functioning

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan S. Young ◽  
Jenalee R. Doom ◽  
Allison K. Farrell ◽  
Elizabeth A. Carlson ◽  
Michelle M. Englund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Hpa Axis ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Stress Exposure ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Biological Stress

Abstract Stressful experiences affect biological stress systems, such as the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Life stress can potentially alter regulation of the HPA axis and has been associated with poorer physical and mental health. Little, however, is known about the relative influence of stressors that are encountered at different developmental periods on acute stress reactions in adulthood. In this study, we explored three models of the influence of stress exposure on cortisol reactivity to a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) by leveraging 37 years of longitudinal data in a high-risk birth cohort (N = 112). The cumulative stress model suggests that accumulated stress across the lifespan leads to dysregulated reactivity, whereas the biological embedding model implicates early childhood as a critical period. The sensitization model assumes that dysregulation should only occur when stress is high in both early childhood and concurrently. All of the models predicted altered reactivity, but do not anticipate its exact form. We found support for both cumulative and biological embedding effects. However, when pitted against each other, early life stress predicted more blunted cortisol responses at age 37 over and above cumulative life stress. Additional analyses revealed that stress exposure in middle childhood also predicted more blunted cortisol reactivity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document