Christian Otte

..Prolactin release was significantly elevated (P < 0.05) in panickers compared with non-panickers, whereas ACTH secretion was not activated at all. This differential stress response needs further investigation...

..The domains of cognitive function that are impaired after blockade of MR in men, that is, selective attention, visuospatial memory, and mental flexibility/set shifting appear to be remarkably similar to those described in animal studies...

..Alterations of mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) mediated negative feedback inhibition of cortisol might contribute to abnormalities of hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) activity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

..Whether the short allele increases risk for depression associated with the stress of a chronic illness has not been established...

..These findings raise important research and treatment issues regarding the generalizability from randomized controlled trials that to exclude patients tend to exclude patients with comorbidity...

..3-9.4, p=0.01). These associations persisted after adjusting for potentially confounding variables. A common GR haplotype was associated with depression in a gene-dosage dependent manner and might be a vulnerability factor for depression...

..Childhood trauma is a risk factor for anxiety disorders in adulthood. One possible mechanism for this association is an increased neuroendocrine response to stress in adults with a history of childhood trauma...

..1, p=0.04). Stimulation of MR with fludrocortisone as adjunct to escitalopram accelerated the response in the group of responders while no effect emerged in the sample as a whole. A larger randomized controlled trial is warranted...

..Prospective studies should explore whether the higher cortisol response in the elderly is a risk factor for developing neuropsychiatric and medical disorders...

..Our results implicate that a decrease in MR-mediated negative feedback contributes to the diminished feedback activity in older humans...

..05), whereas no such effect was observed after aldosterone or placebo. These preliminary data suggest that MR are involved in the inhibition of the HPA axis during the circadian nadir of glucocorticoid concentrations in humans...

..Here, we longitudinally examined if changes in cortisol secretion during treatment are associated with improvement of cognition...

..Alexithymia scores were negatively associated with catecholamine response to the video challenge but no association was found between alexithymia scores and cortisol reactivity...

..We previously reported a diminished delta sleep and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to metyrapone in men with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we aimed to extend these findings to women...

..However, few studies have prospectively examined the relationships among pre-exposure hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity, acute stress reactions and PTSD...

..A common haplotype of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene has been associated with increased susceptibility to coronary heart disease (CHD). Whether this haplotype predisposes to heart failure (HF) is unknown...

..Future studies should explore the temporal relationship between HPA activity, sleep disturbances, and psychopathology after a traumatic event...

..In healthy participants, administration of cortisol impairs declarative memory retrieval. Only a few studies have investigated these effects in PTSD yielding mixed results...

..Prolonged elevation of salivary MHPG in response to a laboratory stressor marks a predisposition to experience higher levels of peritraumatic distress and subsequently more PTSD symptoms following critical incident exposure...

..The authors report an 8-week, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of guanfacine versus placebo for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

..Dose-response studies using metyrapone and glucocorticoid agonists are needed to further investigate HPA axis regulation in PTSD...

..Some studies have found that antidepressants increase serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in patients with major depression and the expression of BDNF mRNA in limbic structures of rats...

..Study characteristics and methods as well as sex-specific confounding variables such as menstrual cycle, menopause and the use of oral contraceptives may account for inconclusive results across studies...

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..4, 95% CI 1.3-4.4, p <.01). In this cross-sectional analysis, elevated cortisol was not associated with worse cardiac function. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with CHD,depression is associated with elevated cortisol levels...

..Future longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether elevations in norepinephrine contribute to adverse cardiac outcomes in patients with depressive symptoms...

..Depressive symptoms predict adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease, but the mechanisms responsible for this association are unknown...

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..Several studies have separately examined cortisol secretion and cognitive deficits in depression. However, only few studies have assessed their association in the same patients producing inconclusive results...

..In women, depressive symptoms are associated with several variables of the metabolic syndrome. Elevated afternoon and evening cortisol appear to partially mediate this association...

..This blunted reactivity-impaired recovery pattern observed among the afternoon studies was most pronounced in studies with older and more severely depressed patients...

..Cortisol was elevated in women with lifetime PTSD compared to controls. No differences were found for platelet catecholamines...

..Next steps in this line of research will be to test this model prospectively in a sample of 400 police academy recruits assessed during training and currently being followed for the first 2 years of police service...

..To our knowledge, this study provides first evidence for altered steroid sensitivity of T cells from MS patients with comorbid MDD possibly due to MR dysregulation...

..Depression is associated with incident CHD and with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Dysregulation of peripheral serotonin, common to both depression and CHD, may contribute to this association...

..This polymorphism may contribute to the interindividual variability in stress responsiveness and might be involved in stress-related disorders...

..The results suggest that the delta sleep response to metyrapone is a measure of the brain response to increases in hypothalamic CRF. These data also suggest that the ACTH and sleep EEG response to hypothalamic CRF is decreased in PTSD...

..Chronic pain appears to be associated with low cortisol secretion. The mechanisms linking chronic pain with low cortisol deserve further study...

..The mechanism by which yohimbine leads to stronger memory consolidation in depressed patients compared with healthy controls remains to be elucidated...

..Statins are among the most commonly prescribed medications worldwide. Although their benefits for cardiovascular disease are well established, the effects of statins on depressive symptoms are unknown...

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..The purpose of our study was to investigate whether the finding of missing effects of acute cortisol administration on memory performance in MDD is also seen when examining prefrontal-based working memory...

..In this study, the relative role of cytokines and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in depression and fatigue were examined in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS)...

..In contrast, group differences in recognition performance did not significantly affect salience ratings. Results indicate that salience modulates MCM and may account for discrepancies in the literature...

..In conclusion, CBT appears to be both efficacious and effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders, but more high-quality studies are needed to better estimate the magnitude of the effect...

..This article aims to review the current evidence regarding immediate (within hours) and early (within days and weeks) psychological and behavioral interventions to prevent posttraumatic stress symptoms...

..We examined the relationship between efficacy of pharmacological anticraving treatment and HPA axis activity in the relapse prevention treatment of alcoholism...

..The study's experimental conditions did not allow determination of whether other compensatory factors might have masked the putative mineralocorticoid receptor changes...

..Dance and yoga have been shown to produce improvements in psychological well-being...

..Alterations of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and sympathetic-adrenal activity have been proposed as key factors in biological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

..Results suggest that childhood trauma may lead to long-lasting alterations in emotional and psychophysiological reactivity even in the absence of current Axis I psychopathology...

..Decreased exercise capacity may contribute to the adverse outcomes associated with the metabolic syndrome...

..Moreover, there are hints for an interaction between pharmacological anti-craving treatment, plasma concentration of leptin, and abstinence duration...

..The efficacy of pharmacological relapse prevention in alcoholism with acamprosate and naltrexone has been supported by several controlled trials. It remains uncertain whether any differential indication for treatment exists...