Clinical correlates of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis measures in individuals at risk for psychosis and with first-episode psychosis

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a stress response system that has been suggested to be involved in the risk of developing a psychotic disorder (Walker et al., 2008). The diathesis-stress model has dominated theories about the pathophysiology of psychosis, suggesting a link between psychosocial stressors, glucocorticoid secretion and dopamine synthesis (Pruessner et al., 2017). For many years, several studies have reported HPA axis hyperactivity and a blunted HPA axis response to psychological stress in chronic patients with schizophrenia (Bradley and Dinan, 2010) or with first-episode psychosis (FEP) (Borges et al., 2013).

Source: Psychiatry Research - May 7, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Javier Labad, Antonio Armario, Roser Nadal, Montse Sol é, Alfonso Gutiérrez-Zotes, Itziar Montalvo, Lorena Moreno-Samaniego, Lourdes Martorell, Vanessa Sánchez-Gistau, Elisabet Vilella Source Type: research