Cognitive modulation of endocrine responses to CRH stimulation in healthy subjects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is critical for biobehavioral adaptation to challenge and appears dysregulated in a range of psychiatric disorders. Its precise role in psychopathology remains unclear and discrepant and difficult to explain findings abound in the clinical literature. Basic research suggests this system is sensitive to psychosocial cues, but psychosocial milieu factors are rarely controlled or examined in psychiatric studies using biological probes of the HPA axis. To test the hypothesis that psychological factors might complicate HPA study results even in direct, pharmacological challenge paradigms, endocrine responses to corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) were examined under two different cognitive preparation conditions.

Methods

SUBMITTER: Abelson JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2824051 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature