Herane-Vives, A;
Arnone, D;
de Angel, V;
Papadopoulos, A;
Wise, T;
Alameda, L;
Chua, KC;
... Cleare, AJ; + view all
(2020)
Cortisol levels in unmedicated patients with unipolar and bipolar major depression using hair and saliva specimens.
International Journal of Bipolar Disorders
, 8
(1)
, Article 15. 10.1186/s40345-020-0180-x.
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Abstract
Background: Differentiating between unipolar and bipolar depression can be clinically challenging, especially at first presentation. Patterns of cortisol secretion could aid diagnostic discrimination in affective disorders although there has been little comparative research to date. In this study, we investigated acute (saliva) and chronic (hair) cortisol levels concurrently in unmedicated unipolar and bipolar disorders by using conventional diagnostic criteria and self-report measures. Methods: Patients with unipolar and bipolar major depression and healthy controls were recruited and assessed. Cortisol levels were extracted from saliva and hair specimens. Depressive features were investigated according to diagnostic groups and with a continuous self-report measure of bipolarity using the Hypomania Checklist (HCL-33). Results: Whilst a trend towards a reduction in the total daily salivary cortisol output—area under the curve with respect to the ground (AUCg)—was detected in depressive disorders across diagnosis, the self-administrated bipolarity index suggested that an increase in bipolarity symptoms predicted lower cortisol levels using AUCg. Chronic cortisol measurement did not discriminate unipolar from bipolar depression. Conclusion: Results suggested that whilst a low total daily salivary cortisol output (AUCg) might be associated with depressive symptoms, a self-reported measure of bipolarity predicts lower daily cortisol output.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cortisol levels in unmedicated patients with unipolar and bipolar major depression using hair and saliva specimens |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s40345-020-0180-x |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40345-020-0180-x |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativeco mmons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10094248 |
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