Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 62, Issue 1, 1 July 2007, Pages 40-46
Biological Psychiatry

Original Article
Disturbances in Morning Cortisol Secretion in Association with Maternal Postnatal Depression Predict Subsequent Depressive Symptomatology in Adolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.09.011Get rights and content

Background

We have previously reported higher and more variable salivary morning cortisol in 13-year-old adolescents whose mothers were depressed in the postnatal period, compared with control group adolescents whose mothers did not develop postnatal depression (PND). This observation suggested a biological mechanism by which intrafamilial risk for depressive disorder may be transmitted. In the current article, we examined whether the cortisol disturbances observed at 13 years could predict depressive symptomatology in adolescents at 16 years of age.

Methods

We measured self-reported depressive symptoms in 16-year-old adolescents who had (n = 48) or had not (n = 39) been exposed to postnatal maternal depression and examined their prediction by morning and evening cortisol indices obtained via 10 days of salivary collections at 13 years.

Results

Elevated morning cortisol secretion at 13 years, and particularly the maximum level recorded over 10 days of collection, predicted elevated depressive symptoms at 16 years over and above 13-year depressive symptom levels and other possible confounding factors. Morning cortisol secretion mediated an association between maternal PND and symptomatology in 16-year-old offspring.

Conclusions

Alterations in steroid secretion observed in association with maternal PND may provide a mechanism by which risk for depression is transmitted from mother to offspring.

Section snippets

Methods and Materials

Participants provided written informed consent prior to taking part in this Cambridgeshire Local Ethics Committee-approved study.

Results

The final sample comprised 44 female and 43 male adolescents, with a mean age of 16 years 1 month (range 15 years 8 months to 17 years). Sample characteristics are reported by maternal group in Table 1. The PND and no PND groups were similar in terms of age in months, gender distribution, and socioeconomic status. In addition, at the time of the 13-year cortisol collections, the groups were comparable in terms of BMI and degree of pubertal development (Tanner stage), as previously reported (

Discussion

We have previously reported that 13-year-old adolescents whose mothers had PND showed higher and more variable morning cortisol secretion than adolescents whose mothers were not depressed postnatally (Halligan et al. 2004). In the current article, we extended these findings by demonstrating that these disturbances in 13-year morning cortisol status 1) predicted depressive symptom status at 16 years and 2) mediated an association between maternal PND and 16-year depressive symptoms in

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