%0 Journal Article
%T Cortisol in hair measured in young adults - a biomarker of major life stressors?
%A Jerker Karl¨¦n
%A Johnny Ludvigsson
%A Anneli Frostell
%A Elvar Theodorsson
%A Tomas Faresj£¿
%J BMC Clinical Pathology
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6890-11-12
%X Hair samples were cut from the posterior vertex area of (n = 99) university students who also answered a questionnaire covering experiences of serious life events, perceived Stress Scale and perceived health during the last three months. Cortisol was measured using a competitive radioimmunoassay in methanol extracts of hair samples frozen in liquid nitrogen and mechanically pulverised.Mean cortisol levels were significantly related to serious life events (p = 0.045), weakly negatively correlated to perceived stress (p = 0.025, r = -0.061) but nor affected by sex, coloured/permed hair, intake of pharmaceuticals or self-reported health. In a multiple regression model, only the indicator of serious life events had an independent (p = 0.041) explanation of increased levels of cortisol in hair. Out of four outliers with extremely high cortisol levels two could be contacted, both reported serious psychological problems.These findings suggest that measurement of cortisol in hair could serve as a retrospective biomarker of increased cortisol production reflecting exposure to major life stressors and possibly extended psychological illness with important implications for research, clinical practice and public health. Experience of serious life events seems to be more important in raising cortisol levels in hair than perceived stress.The evidence for stress as a cause for a range of diseases in modern industrial societies has been growing stronger in recent decades. Psychosocial factors like anxiety, social isolation, stressful life events and lack of control over work accumulate during life and increase the risk of premature death or poor mental health [1]. These so called psychosocial stressors ultimately affect the health. The evidence seems to be strongest for depression [2,3] but is also strong for cardiovascular diseases [4,5] and even HIV [6]. More evidence is also emerging regarding other diseases including e.g. infections and autoimmune diseases [7,8].The role of the
%K Biomarker
%K Coping
%K Cortisol
%K Hair
%K Serious life events
%K Stress
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6890/11/12