Maternal emotional availability at bedtime and infant cortisol at 1 and 3 months

Background

Previous work has shown that early experience influences infant cortisol secretion. Few studies, however, have examined associations between parenting quality and cortisol levels and patterning in very young infants.

Aims

This study examined linkages between maternal emotional availability (EA) during a routine caregiving task, bedtime, and infant cortisol in the first 3 months of life. Concurrent and longitudinal associations between maternal EA and infant cortisol were examined.

Study design

Families were visited when their infants were 1 and 3 months old. Video equipment was set up in order to record the infant's bedtime routine. Parents were provided with materials with which to take saliva samples from their infants at late afternoon, bedtime, and the following morning.

Subjects

At 1 month, participants were 96 mothers and infants living in a rural U.S. state. Data were available for 88 mothers and infants at 3 months.

Outcome measures

Maternal EA was scored from videotapes of bedtime at each age point. Infant cortisol was assessed from the saliva samples taken by parents.

Results

Regression analyses indicated that at 1 and 3 months of age, infants of more emotionally available mothers showed lower levels of cortisol secretion across the night than infants of less emotionally available mothers. Additionally, multilevel model analyses indicated that infants of more emotionally available mothers showed greater evidence of a decline in their cortisol levels across the evening, followed by an increase across the nighttime into the morning in their cortisol at 3 months.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that maternal care in the context of a routine caregiving task is associated with lower stress reactivity and with earlier circadian patterning in very young infants.     

Subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation correlates with motor skills in head start children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional relationship between subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation and motor skills in 3–5 year old children. It is known that the efficiency of orthostatic blood pressure regulation is affected by a variety of processes, most especially neurohumoral as well as sympathetic nervous system function. Using the DIAL-3 to evaluate gross motor (jump, hop, skip), fine motor (building) and copying abilities, we found a significant curvilinear association between the difference in systolic blood pressure following an orthostatic challenge and the DIAL-3 composite motor skills score. This relationship indicated that up to a point an increase in systolic blood pressure upon standing was associated with the highest composite motor score; further, the association was stronger in females (R² = 0.12). This study illustrates that in response to an orthostatic challenge, a moderate increase in orthostatic systolic blood pressure serves as a marker for those processes such as dopamine and sympathetic nervous system function that provide the resources for orthostatic blood pressure regulation and cognition in young children. Thus, by identifying individuals with orthostatic systolic dysregulation early, one may attenuate problematic physiological and psychological effects associated with subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation.     

Black sheep get the blues: A psychobiological model of social rejection and depression

Major life events involving social rejection are strongly associated with onset of depression. To account for this relation, we propose a psychobiological model in which rejection-related stressors elicit a distinct and integrated set of cognitive, emotional, and biological changes that may evoke depression. In this model, social rejection events activate brain regions involved in processing negative affect and rejection-related distress (e.g., anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). They also elicit negative self-referential cognitions (e.g., “I’m undesirable,” “Other people don’t like me”) and related self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, humiliation). Downstream biological consequences include upregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axis, and inflammatory response. Pro-inflammatory cytokines play an important role in this process because they induce a constellation of depressotypic behaviors called sickness behaviors. Although these changes can be short-lived, sustained inflammation may occur via glucocorticoid resistance, catecholamines, sympathetic innervation of immune organs, and immune cell aging. This response also may be moderated by several factors, including prior life stress, prior depression, and genes implicated in stress reactivity.     

抑郁症患者血清皮质醇水平分析

研究抑郁症患者血清皮质醇水平的影响因素。方法59例抑郁症患者和17例健康人在入组第1天早晨和下午测血清皮质醇水平,抑郁症患者入组当天评定HAMD。结果抑郁症组的皮质醇水平显著高于健康对照组,从健康对照组、轻中度抑郁组到严重抑郁组疗前下午血清皮质醇水平逐步升高,HAMD总分及各因子分与疗前早晨和下午血清皮质醇水平及其差值无显著相关,首次发作抑郁症患者皮质醇水平较反复发作者倾向为高,但无显著差异。结论部分抑郁症患者的皮质醇水平升高,抑郁症患者血清皮质醇水平与抑郁严重程度正相关。