Cortisol awakening response and diurnal cortisol among children at elevated risk for schizophrenia: relationship to psychosocial stress and cognition.

ABSTRACT: Abnormal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, as indexed by elevated diurnal cortisol levels and/or a blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR), has been observed among patients with first episode psychosis and associated with neurocognitive deficits in this population. However, the extent to which these features precede illness onset is unclear. The current study aimed to determine whether children who are at putatively elevated risk for psychosis because they present multiple antecedents of schizophrenia (ASz), and high-risk children with a family history of illness (FHx), are characterized by abnormal cortisol levels when compared with their typically developing (TD) peers. A further aim was to investigate the extent to which cortisol levels are associated with psychosoci

SUBMITTER: Cullen AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4065330 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature