Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Hair cortisol is a promising new biomarker of retrospective systemic cortisol concentration. In this study, we compared hair cortisol concentrations in patients with newly diagnosed bipolar disorder (BD), their unaffected first-degree relatives and healthy individuals and identified potential predictors of hair cortisol concentrations in patients with BD.
METHOD: In a cross-sectional design, we compared hair cortisol concentrations in 181 patients with newly diagnosed/first episode BD, 42 of their unaffected first-degree relatives and 101 healthy age- and sex-matched individuals with no personal or first-degree family history of affective disorder. In patients with BD, we further investigated whether medication- and illness related variables, as well as measures of stressful life events in the preceding 12 months and childhood trauma, were associated with hair cortisol concentrations.
RESULTS: Hair cortisol concentrations were 35.1% (95%CI: 13.0-61.5) higher in patients with BD (P = 0.001) compared with healthy individuals in models adjusted for age and sex. Hair cortisol concentrations in unaffected first-degree relatives did not differ from healthy individuals (P = 0.8). In patients, neither medication, illness duration nor stress related variables were associated with hair cortisol concentrations.
CONCLUSION: We found elevated hair cortisol concentrations in patients newly diagnosed with BD indicating the presence of physiological stress in early stages of BD.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Psychoneuroendocrinology |
| Volume | 99 |
| Pages (from-to) | 183-190 |
| ISSN | 0306-4530 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2019 |
Keywords
- Adult
- Biomarkers
- Bipolar Disorder/metabolism
- Case-Control Studies
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Family/psychology
- Female
- Hair/chemistry
- Humans
- Hydrocortisone/analysis
- Male
- Retrospective Studies
- Stress, Physiological/physiology
- Young Adult