Treatment-Resistant Blunted HPA Activity, but Reversible Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity in Young Women With Eating Disorders.

Previous research has provided evidence for a reduced neuroendocrine stress response in women with eating disorders (EDs). In the present study female in-patients with Anorexia and Bulimia nervosa were compared to female healthy controls (HC) before and after completing an in-patient treatment program. Salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase (sAA), heart rate response (HR), high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and negative affective state were measured before, during and after exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) at pre- and post-treatment.

Blunted neuroendocrine stress reactivity in young women with eating disorders.

Objective: Stress is known to influence risk and progression of eating disorders (EDs). However, studies investigating physiological and psychological stress responses under laboratory conditions in patients with Anorexia nervosa or Bulimia nervosa are scarce and often produce conflicting findings. We therefore aimed to compare the neuroendocrine and affective stress response in ED inpatients and healthy controls.

Emotion regulation: exploring the impact of stress and sex.

Emotion regulation is a major prerequisite for adaptive behavior. The capacity to regulate emotions is particularly important during and after the encounter of a stressor. However, the impact of acute stress and its associated neuroendocrine alterations on emotion regulation have received little attention so far.

Writing about life goals: effects on rumination, mood and the cortisol awakening response.

Rumination is a vulnerability factor for the onset and maintenance of emotional distress. This study examined whether writing about life goals is associated with a decrease in ruminative thinking and a reduced cortisol awakening response. 68 healthy participants either wrote about their personal life goals or a control topic.

Stress-induced cortisol level elevations are associated with reduced negative affect after stress: indications for a mood-buffering cortisol effect.

Objective: Stress is associated with increased negative affect and activation of the sympathetic nervous system and of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, the relationship between these stress systems and negative affect is incompletely understood. We therefore investigated positive and negative affects in relationship with salivary cortisol and salivary α-amylase (sAA) levels in a large sample of participants exposed to a psychosocial stressor or a control condition.

Mood changes in response to psychosocial stress in healthy young women: effects of pretreatment with cortisol.

Effects of cortisol on human mood during stress situations are still incompletely understood, although this topic has important clinical implications. In this experiment, the mood of 44 healthy young women (all oral contraceptive users) was examined. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled time series paradigm was used.