The role of social-evaluative threat for cortisol profiles in response to psychosocial stress: A person-centered approach.

Heterogeneity in individuals' physiological stress responses is central to theories linking stress with vulnerability to disease. Although multiple cortisol profiles have been reported in response to acute psychological stress, most prior work focuses on a single, average pattern and relative deviations from it, such as greater or lesser response peaks or reactivity. The present aims were to identify cortisol stress response trajectory classes using a data-driven approach and test whether social-evaluative threat (SET), a reliable elicitor of cortisol, predicted a greater likelihood of membership in the more reactive profiles.

Acoustic Cry Characteristics in Preterm Infants and Developmental and Behavioral Outcomes at 2 Years of Age.

Importance: Acoustic cry characteristics have been associated with severe medical problems in newborns. However, little is known about the utility of neonatal acoustic cry characteristics in the prediction of long-term outcomes of very preterm infants.

Objectives: To evaluate whether acoustic characteristics of infant cry at neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge are associated with behavioral and developmental outcomes at age 2 years in infants born very preterm.

Newborn Cry Acoustics in the Assessment of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome Using Machine Learning.

Importance: The assessment of opioid withdrawal in the neonate, or neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), is problematic because current assessment methods are based on subjective observer ratings. Crying is a distinctive component of NOWS assessment tools and can be measured objectively using acoustic analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of using newborn cry acoustics (acoustics referring to the physical properties of sound) as an objective biobehavioral marker of NOWS.

Psychosocial Resilience to Inflammation-Associated Depression: A Prospective Study of Breast-Cancer Survivors.

Stress can lead to depression, in part because of activation of inflammatory mechanisms. It is therefore critical to identify resilience factors that can buffer against these effects, but no research to date has evaluated whether psychosocial resilience mitigates the effects of stress on inflammation-associated depressive symptoms. We therefore examined psychosocial resources known to buffer against stress in a longitudinal study of women with breast cancer ( = 187).

Younger women are more susceptible to inflammation: A longitudinal examination of the role of aging in inflammation and depressive symptoms.

Background: The degree to which effects of inflammation on mood and behavior vary across the lifespan remains relatively unexplored despite well-established, age-related alterations in both the immune and central nervous systems. Further, the implications of this developmental process within different symptom domains warrants careful consideration.

Methods: Women diagnosed with breast cancer (n = 188; ages 27-89) provided blood samples and reported depressive symptoms prior to adjuvant treatment, at the end of adjuvant treatment, and 6-, 12-, and 18-months after completing adjuvant treatment via the CES-D.

Moderators of inflammation-related depression: a prospective study of breast cancer survivors.

Inflammation has been shown to predict depression, but sensitivity to inflammation varies across individuals. Experimental studies administering potent pro-inflammatory agents have begun to characterize this sensitivity. However, risk factors for inflammation-associated depression in naturalistic contexts have not been determined.

Gender roles are related to cortisol habituation to repeated social evaluative stressors in adults: secondary analyses from a randomized controlled trial.

Masculine and feminine gender roles influence stressor appraisals and coping in everyday life, but their effect on stress response systems like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis is unclear. Accordingly, the present study tested the association between gender roles and cortisol responses to repeated stress as part of secondary analyses of data from a randomized controlled trial examining the effects of stress management interventions on cortisol habituation. Participants (N = 86; 72% female) completed a baseline survey assessing gender role endorsement using the Bem Sex Role Inventory, from which 4 groups were derived: masculine ( = 20), feminine ( = 20), androgynous (high masculinity, high femininity;  = 22), and undifferentiated (low masculinity, low femininity;  = 24).

Vulnerability to inflammation-related depressive symptoms: Moderation by stress in women with breast cancer.

Background: Stress precipitates depression and may do so in part by increasing susceptibility to inflammation-induced depressive symptoms. However, this has not been examined among individuals facing a major life stressor. Accordingly, the present study tested the moderating role of stress on the longitudinal association between inflammation and depressive symptoms among women with breast cancer.

Standardized stress reduction interventions and blood pressure habituation: Secondary results from a randomized controlled trial.

Unlabelled: Meta-analyses suggest a small association between cardiovascular responses to acute stressors and cardiovascular disease, but a recent review suggests that this effect may be underestimated due to insufficient consideration of individual differences in habituation to repeated stressors.

Objective: The present article reports new analyses of a published randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and a passive control condition on blood pressure habituation-a secondary outcome. Psychological mediators of intervention effects were examined.

Childhood adversity and cortisol habituation to repeated stress in adulthood.

Background: Childhood adversity is a robust predictor of poor health outcomes in adulthood and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis dysfunction may be a key mechanism explaining this association. However, little is known about the influence childhood adversity may exhibit on adult HPA axis habituation (i.e.

Mindfulnes-Based Stress Reduction for Older Couples with Metabolic Syndrome: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: We examined the feasibility and explored the physical, psychological, relational, and biological effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an 8-week standardized mindfulness program, involving older married couples (60 years or older) with metabolic syndrome (one or both partners had metabolic syndrome). We also explored gender differences.

Methods: A pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) compared MBSR to a Wait List Control (WLC) arm at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up clinic visits.

Daily stressors and diurnal cortisol among sexual and gender minority young adults.

Objective: Minority stress may contribute to poor health by dysregulating stress response systems, including diurnal cortisol rhythms. However, few studies have examined the association between sexual and gender minority stress and diurnal cortisol in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The current investigation tested whether the daily experience of minority stressors is uniquely related to diurnal cortisol above and beyond general stressors.

When enhanced awareness threatens: Interactive effects of domain-specific awareness and acceptance manipulations on cardiovascular indices of challenge and threat.

Mindfulness includes acceptance and awareness subcomponents, and emerging theories imply that cultivating both acceptance and awareness may benefit health by diminishing stress reactivity. Yet, no prior work has examined the effects of mindful acceptance and awareness on cardiovascular markers of threat and challenge-cardiac output and total peripheral resistance-despite the unique insights these indices yield into stress-related evaluations and motivation. The current research integrates Monitor and Acceptance Theory with the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat to elucidate how an awareness manipulation and a brief acceptance training are associated with cardiovascular stress responses underlying states of challenge and threat.

Corroborative evidence for an association between initial hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis reactivity and subsequent habituation in humans.

Background: The extant literature predicts that initial hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis response magnitude and subsequent habituation are associated with health, such that both heightened stress reactivity and non-habituation to repeated stressors are associated with disease. Yet, despite evidence for an association between initial HPA axis reactivity and subsequent habituation, the extant literature often considers health implications of these stress response patterns independently or make interpretations based on an initial response alone. This may be because past tests of the association between reactivity and habituation were subject to statistical bias (e.

Gender differences in short-term cardiovascular effects of giving and receiving support for health concerns in marriage.

Objective: Little is known about the cardiovascular effects of mutual emotional spousal support given for health concerns. We examined the hypotheses that: (a) mutual support (both spouses giving and receiving support) compared to one-sided or no support, would decrease blood pressure and heart rate in both spouses during a recovery period; and (b) wives would benefit more from mutual support than would husbands. A second aim was to examine gender differences in cardiovascular reactivity, distress, and closeness in response to receiving support regardless of mutuality.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and cortisol habituation: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis dysregulation is associated with disease and may be indexed by poor cortisol habituation (i.e., a failure to show decreased responding with repeated stressor exposure).

Testosterone to cortisol ratio and aggression toward one's partner: Evidence for moderation by provocation.

Background: Consistent with the dual-hormone hypothesis, the combination of high testosterone levels and low cortisol levels has been linked to increased dominant and aggressive behaviors. However, recent research indicates that this association is weaker or even reversed following provocation. It is also unclear whether the association between testosterone/cortisol and aggression is similar for men and women and for those with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

When Family Matters Most: A Test of the Association Between Sexual Minority Identity Disclosure Context and Diurnal Cortisol in Sexual Minority Young Adults.

Objective: Revealing one's sexual identity to others is a complex process marked by a shift in the types of stressors faced by sexual minority young adults. Such stressors influence the secretion of health-relevant hormones, including cortisol, yet how dimensions of disclosure (i.e.

Education Is Associated with the Magnitude of Cortisol Responses to Psychosocial Stress in College Students.

Purpose: Researchers benefit from controlling for individual differences that systematically account for variance in acute cortisol responses (e.g., sex).

Trait mindfulness predicts the presence but not the magnitude of cortisol responses to acute stress.

Background: Mindfulness, or the practice of observing present moment experiences with acceptance, is thought to improve health at least partially by limiting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis over-responsiveness during episodes of acute stress. However, models of allostatic load suggest that HPA axis under-responsiveness can also be detrimental to health, and the relationship between mindfulness and cortisol under-responsiveness has yet to be examined. The present study therefore aimed to address this knowledge gap, and to revisit the relationship between mindfulness and acute cortisol response magnitude while excluding (or statistically controlling for) individuals displaying HPA axis under-responsiveness.

Trait Rumination Predicts Elevated Evening Cortisol in Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults.

Stress may contribute to illness through the impaired recovery or sustained activity of stress-responsive biological systems. Rumination, or mental rehearsal of past stressors, may alter the body's stress-responsive systems by amplifying and prolonging exposure to physiological mediators, such as cortisol. The primary aim of the current investigation was to test the extent to which the tendency to ruminate on stress predicts diminished diurnal cortisol recovery (i.

Assessment of unconscious decision aids applied to complex patient-centered medical decisions.

Background: To improve patient health, recent research urges for medical decision aids that are designed to enhance the effectiveness of specific medically related decisions. Many such decisions involve complex information, and decision aids that independently use deliberative (analytical and slower) or intuitive (more affective and automatic) cognitive processes for such decisions result in suboptimal decisions. Unconscious thought can arguably use both intuitive and deliberative (slow and analytic) processes, and this combination may further benefit complex patient (or practitioner) decisions as medical decision aids.