Salivary cortisol levels and mood vary by lifetime trauma exposure in a sample of healthy women.

The authors examined the effects of lifetime trauma exposure on salivary cortisol and mood in a sample of women (N = 37) over 25 days before and after a stressful event. The sample excluded posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression and was divided into three groups: (a) no trauma, (b) prior trauma with no peritraumatic symptoms of acute distress, and (c) prior trauma with peritraumatic symptoms. Because results indicated no significant differences between groups one and two, they were combined for analysis.

Reducing the impact of uncontrollable stressful life events through a program of nurse home visitation for new parents.

The current study examined whether the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), an intervention in which mothers received home visitation by registered nurses pre- and postnatally, reduced mothers' vulnerability to the effects of stressful life events several years after the program was completed. Data from a randomized trial of the NFP were examined for mothers (N = 324) who were generally low-income, young, and unmarried at the time of the birth of their first child. Structured interviews were done with mothers about 15 years after the program began.