Gestational and Postnatal Cortisol Profiles of Women With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the Dissociative Subtype.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To test the hypothesis that women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have greater salivary cortisol levels across the diurnal curve and throughout gestation, birth, and the postpartum period than women who do not have PTSD.

Design

Prospective, longitudinal, biobehavioral cohort study.

Setting

Prenatal clinics at academic health centers in the Midwest region of the United States.

Participants

Women expecting their first infants who fit with one of four cohorts: a nonexposed control group, a trauma-exposed control group, a group with PTSD, and a group with the dissociative subtype of PTSD.

Methods

In the first half of pregnancy, 395 women provided three salivary cortisol specimens on a single day for diurnal data. A subsample of 111 women

SUBMITTER: Seng JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6690388 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature