The cortisol response to social stress in social anxiety disorder

Oriana Vaccarino; Robert Levitan; Arun Ravindran

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2015.03.004

The cortisol response to social stress in social anxiety disorder

Asian J Psychiatr. 2015 Apr:14:57-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2015.03.004. Epub 2015 Mar 26.

Authors

Oriana Vaccarino¹, Robert Levitan², Arun Ravindran³

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 100 Stokes St., Toronto, ON, Canada M6 J 1H4; University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science, 1 King's College Circle, Room 2374, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8.
² Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 100 Stokes St., Toronto, ON, Canada M6 J 1H4; University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, 8th Floor, Toronto, ON, Canada M5 T 1R8; University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science, 1 King's College Circle, Room 2374, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8.
³ Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 100 Stokes St., Toronto, ON, Canada M6 J 1H4; University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, 8th Floor, Toronto, ON, Canada M5 T 1R8; University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science, 1 King's College Circle, Room 2374, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8. Electronic address: arun.ravindran@camh.ca.

PMID: 25864645
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2015.03.004

Abstract

This study evaluated the cortisol stress response (CSR) following the Trier Social Stress Test in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and control participants, to determine whether individual differences in CSR associate more with SAD diagnosis or dimensional characteristics [i.e. childhood trauma (CT)]. Twenty-one participants (11 with SAD) had full data available for both CT-scores and cortisol area-under-the-curve (AUC). Linear regression produced significant results: predicting AUCG with study group, emotional abuse (EA) scores and their interaction (F=3.14, df=5,15; p=.039); of note, the study group by EA interaction was significant at p=.015, driven by a strong positive association between EA and cortisol AUCG in the control group, and a negative association between these variables in the SAD group (standardized-beta=1.56, t=2.75, p=.015). This suggests that EA in SAD patients is associated with altered CSR, highlighting need to measure dimensional characteristics.

Keywords: Childhood trauma; Cortisol; Emotional abuse; Social anxiety disorder; Social stress.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Area Under Curve
Case-Control Studies
Child Abuse / psychology*
Emotions*
Female
Humans
Hydrocortisone / metabolism*
Male
Middle Aged
Phobic Disorders / etiology*
Social Environment
Stress Disorders, Traumatic / complications
Stress, Psychological / complications
Young Adult

Substances

Hydrocortisone