Hair cortisol in newly diagnosed bipolar disorder and unaffected first-degree relatives

Stressful life events often precede the first major mood episode of bipolar disorder (BD) (Horesh et al., 2011) as well as subsequent mood episodes (Lex et al., 2017) and the tolerance for stressful life events seems to decrease with advanced illness burden (Kessing& Andersen, 2017). Further, BD seems associated with dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Belvederi Murri et al., 2016) including elevated concentrations of basal plasma and salivary cortisol concentrations although with large heterogeneity in findings (Belvederi Murri et al., 2016; Stalder& Kirschbaum, 2012).

Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - September 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Klara Coello, Klaus Munkholm, Flemming Nielsen, Maj Vinberg, Lars Vedel Kessing Source Type: research