Cumulative cortisol concentrations in hair of patients with atopy are lower than in healthy subjects and are not related to their perceived stress experience

Abstract

Patients with atopy were found to exhibit blunted cortisol responses to acute stress stimuli. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that cumulative cortisol concentrations in the hair of patients with atopy are lower than in healthy subjects when related to their perceived stress experience. The sample consisted of 31 participants. The most proximal 3 cm of hair (as close to the scalp as possible), reflecting the cumulative cortisol secretion during the previous 3 months, was used for the analysis. Only in 20 subjects (9 patients with atopy and 11 healthy controls), there was a sufficient amount of hair for precise analysis using a new methodology. The results showed lower hair cortisol concentrations in patients with atopy compared to those in controls. The perceived stress scores in patients with atopy and healthy controls were not statistically different. The cortisol concentration/perceived stress score ratios were lower in patients with atopy compared to those in controls. No statistically significant correlation between hair cortisol and long-term experienced stress assessed via perceived stress scale was observed. In conclusion, the cumulative cortisol secretion in the hair of atopic patients is lower than would be expected according to their subjective scores of perceived stress. Most importantly, the previously lower stress hormone increase found in acute stress situations and in children now was confirmed in adult patients with chronic stress load.

Keywords:

• HPA axis
• subjective stress perception
• allergy
• cortisol
• stress
• coping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency [APVV-17-0451] and the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports and the Slovak Academy of Sciences [VEGA 1/0757/19 and 2/0022/19].

Notes on contributors

P. Solarikova

Petra Solarikova, PhD. is young researcher at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, in the field of general, experimental and clinical psychology. Her research is focused on psychological and neuroendocrine aspects of stress and stress reduction interventions.

L. Karailievova

Lucia Karailievova Dr rer. nat., PhD is a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Pharmacological Neuroendocrinology which is part of the Department of Endocrine Regulations and Psychopharmacology of the IEE BMC SAS, Slovakia. She has finished her PDd in animal physiology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University. Her research is focused on behavioural and neuroendocrine factors in stress in animal and human studies.

J. Rajcani

Jakub Rajcani, Mgr. PhD., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of psychophysiology in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. He finished his PhD in clinical psychology, at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. His research is oriented on the cognitive, emotional and neuroendocrine aspects of stress in humans.

I. Brezina

Igor Brezina, PhD. has been the head of Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava for many years. He has a profound knowledge in the domain of cognitive psychology and emotionality with an accent on psychological an psychophysiological components of stress. He is an expert in the field of attention and memory. He founded the first laboratory of psychophysiology in the Slovak Republic. The scientific activity of assoc. prof. Brezina and particularly his research on the organization of attention was awarded by the American Psychological Society (with R.J. Audley, UCL, London). He is/was a member of many scientific institutions or organizations.

D. Jezova

Daniela Jezova, PharmD is the Head of the Laboratory of Pharmacological Neuroendocrinology being a part of the Department of Endocrine Regulations and Psychopharmacology of the IEE BMC SAS and a full professor of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. She is serving as an international expert, e.g. in the panel of European Research Council (ERC) on Endocrinology, Pathophysiology and Physiology. She has been a vice-president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and vice-president of All European Academies. Her research team belongs to the evaluated top research teams in Slovakia. She has experience with laboratory psychosocial stress models and daily life stress investigations in healthy volunteers and patients with stress-related mental, metabolic and cardiovascular disease.