Child depressive symptoms: Associations with salivary cortisol and alpha amylase in two distinct challenges

Adrenocortical and autonomic cross-system regulation in youth: A meta-analysis

Childhood and adolescence are salient periods for the development of adrenocortical and autonomic arms of the stress response system (SRS), setting the stage for subsequent health and adaptive functioning. Although adrenocortical and autonomic systems theoretically function in highly coordinated ways, the strength of the relationship between these systems remains unclear. We leveraged a multivariate mixed effects meta-analytic approach to assess associations between adrenocortical, sympathetic, and parasympathetic functioning at rest and reactivity during stress-inducing tasks across 52 studies (N = 7,671; 5-20 years old). Results suggested a modest positive relation between adrenocortical and sympathetic systems as well as between adrenocortical and parasympathetic systems. Moderation analyses indicated the strength of associations varied as a function of several methodological and sociodemographic characteristics. Environmental effects on cross-system regulation were less clear, perhaps due to underrepresentation of adverse-exposed youth in the included studies. Collectively, our findings call for greater methodological attention to the dynamical, non-linear nature of cross-system functioning, as well as the role of experience in their organization across development.

Pupillary motility responses to affectively salient stimuli in individuals with depression or elevated risk of depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Elaborative affective processing is observed in depression, and pupillary reactivity, a continuous, sensitive, and reliable indicator of physiological arousal and neurocognitive processing, is increasingly utilized in studies of depression-related characteristics. As a first attempt to quantitively summarize existing evidence on depression-related pupillary reactivity alterations, this review and meta-analysis evaluated the direction, magnitude, and specificity of pupillary indices of affective processing towards positively, negatively, and neutrally-valenced stimuli among individuals diagnosed with depression or with elevated risk of depression. Studies on pupillary responses to affective stimuli in the target groups were identified in PsycINFO and PubMed databases. Twenty-two articles met inclusion criteria for the qualitative review and 16 for the quantitative review. Three-level frequentist and Bayesian models were applied to summarize pooled effects from baseline-controlled stimuli-induced average changes in pupillary responses. In general, compared to non-depressed individuals, individuals with depression or elevated risk of depression exhibited higher pupillary reactivity (d =0.15) towards negatively-valenced stimuli during affective processing. Pupillary motility towards negatively-valenced stimuli may be a promising trait-like marker for depression vulnerability.

Coordination of autonomic and endocrine stress responses to the Trier Social Stress Test in adolescence

Dysregulations in autonomic and endocrine stress responses are linked to the emergence of psychopathology in adolescence. However, most studies fail to consider the interplay between these systems giving rise to conflicting findings and a gap in understanding adolescent stress response regulation. A multisystem framework-investigation of parasympathetic (PNS), sympathetic (SNS), and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis components and their coordination-is necessary to understand individual differences in stress response coordination which contribute to stress vulnerabilities. As the first investigation to comprehensively evaluate these three systems in adolescence, the current study employed the Trier Social Stress Test in 72 typically developing adolescents (mean age = 13) to address how PNS, SNS, and HPA stress responses are coordinated in adolescence. Hypotheses tested key predictions of the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM) of stress response coordination. PNS and SNS responses were assessed via heart rate variability (HRV) and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) respectively. HPA responses were indexed by salivary cortisol. Analyses utilized piecewise growth curve modeling to investigate these aims. Supporting the ACM theory, there was significant hierarchical coordination between the systems such that those with low HRV had higher sAA and cortisol reactivity and those with high HRV had low-to-moderate sAA and cortisol responsivity. Our novel results reveal the necessity of studying multisystem dynamics in an integrative fashion to uncover the true mechanisms of stress response and regulation during development. Additionally, our findings support the existence of characteristic stress response profiles as predicted by the ACM model.

Stress Hormones Cortisol and Aldosterone, and Selected Markers of Oxidative Stress in Response to Long-Term Supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Adolescent Children with Depression

Late childhood and adolescence are crucial periods of brain development with high vulnerability to environmental insults. The aim of this study was to test the hypotheses that in adolescents with depression (a) 12 weeks-supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids results in the attenuation of salivary stress hormone concentrations; (b) the mentioned supplementation improves potentially disrupted daily rhythm of stress hormones; (c) stress hormone concentrations correlate with values of selected markers of oxidative stress. The sample consisted of 60 patients suffering from depression aged 11–18 years. Hormone concentrations in saliva were measured in the morning and midday before (baseline) and after (6, 12 weeks) food supplementation with omega-3 or omega-6 (as comparator) fatty acids. Morning cortisol decreased in response to omega-3 but not omega-6 fatty acids at 12 weeks compared to baseline. No changes were observed in aldosterone concentrations. The obtained results show that adolescent children with depression preserved the daily rhythm of both stress hormones. Baseline morning cortisol concentrations correlated positively with depression severity and lipoperoxides, and negatively with docosahexaenoic acid. Aldosterone concentrations correlated positively with 8-isoprostane. Thus, both hormones showed positive correlation with the selected markers of oxidative stress suggesting that enhanced stress hormone secretion may be associated with increased oxidative tissue damage in adolescent children with depression. This study was registered with the ISRCTN registry (DEPOXIN study, ISRCTN81655012).

Altered markers of stress in depressed adolescents after acute social media use

Social media use (SMU) is an inherent element in the daily life and neurodevelopment of adolescents, but broad concerns exist regarding the untoward effects of social media on adolescents. We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional study that sought to examine the acute effects of SMU on clinical measures and biomarkers of stress in healthy and depressed adolescents. After at least 24 h of abstinence from social media, depressed adolescents (n = 30) and healthy control adolescents (n = 30) underwent baseline clinical assessment of their prior SMU, depressive symptom severity, self-esteem, and exposure to bullying. Participants provided salivary samples that were analyzed for α-amylase and cortisol levels. After 20 min of unsupervised SMU, saliva analyses and clinical assessments were repeated. After 20 min of SMU, salivary cortisol and α-amylase levels were significantly higher in adolescents with depression but not in healthy control adolescents. Furthermore, small but statistically significant changes in depressive symptom severity occurred in all participants. These changes in depressive symptoms were not clinically meaningful. SMU did not significantly change self-esteem measures among participants. Adolescents with depression appeared to have more physiological reactivity after SMU compared with healthy adolescents. Further research should characterize SMU as a clinical dimension and risk factor among adolescents with depression and other psychiatric disorders.

Lower activity of salivary alpha-amylase in youths with depression

Measurement of basal and stress-induced salivary alpha-amylase activity may help to understand autonomic nervous system disturbance in mental disorders. The potential sympathetic nervous system dysregulation in children and adolescent psychopathologies is mostly unknown. The present study was aimed to test the hypothesis that salivary alpha-amylase activity is higher in youths diagnosed with depression than in healthy subjects considering a part of the daily rhythm of enzyme activity and its morning to midday slope. A total of 30 children aged 15 ± 0.46 years (15 patients with depression, 4 boys, 11 girls, and 15 sex- and age-matched healthy controls) participated in the study. Two saliva samples were collected from each subject to measure activity of alpha-amylase in the morning and midday. The results of the present study revealed that the midday but not morning alpha-amylase activity was lower in patients with depression than in healthy controls. The diurnal increase in enzyme activity present in healthy subjects was absent in patients. The children and adolescents with depression exhibited flatter morning to midday slopes of alpha-amylase activity. In conclusion, the present results indicate a disturbance of alpha-amylase daily rhythm in youths with depression and motivate further studies on the relationship between sympathetic activation and mood disorders.