Hair cortisol concentrations predict change in girls’ depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis activity is related to negative mental health outcomes, including depression. Most developmental research uses salivary cortisol to index HPA activity; however, hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) reflect cortisol production over extended periods of time. While HCCs have been linked to adult depression, their relationship to the development of children’s depressive symptoms is unclear. We assessed HCCs in 60 seven-year-old community-dwelling girls who were followed up one year later. In broader models, girls’ age 7 HCCs were positively associated with age 8 depressive symptoms at a trend level, indicating that HCCs may be related to mental health early in development.

KEYWORDS:

• Hair cortisol
• depression
• development

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number CIHR MOP86458], the Children’s Health Research Institute (CHRI), The Research Leadership for Better Pharmacotherapy During Pregnancy and Lactation, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). These agencies had no role in study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, report writing, or the submission of this paper for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR MOP86458]; Children’s Health Research Institute; Ontario Graduate Scholarship.