Relationship Among Saliva Cortisol Level, Childhood Trauma And Depression Symptom Spectrum In Adolescent Depression Patients

ObjectiveAdolescent depression is a common clinical mental illness, is similar with adult depression pathogenesis, but also has its own characteristics, Recent search shows that the presence of HPA axis dysfunction in patients with depression,whether adolescent depression patients havethe same nerve endocrine changes and thus may be associated with the onset of adolescent depression is unclear. This study assumes that adolescent depression patients with elevated levels of cortisol, childhood trauma may experience in their childhood, then in the later days caused mental health problems.This study to compare the morning salivary cortisol levels differences in patients with adolescent depression, analysis the factors that may affect salivary cortisol of adolescent depression,The aim of the study is to explore the relationshipamong salivary cortisol level, childhood trauma and depression symptom spectrumin adolescent depression patients.MethodsTo collect 73 aged 14-22 years old adolescent with depression patients (depression group) and 69 non-depressed subjects (control group)by Hamilton rating scale for depression-17-item version(HAMD-17) Depression scale of patient health questionnaire nine-item version(PHQ-9)Self rating scale-90-itemversion (SCL-90).Adolescentdepression patients and the healthy adolescents were assessed by Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Then the patients were divided into 40 depression group with childhood trauma and 33 without childhood trauma, as well as the healthy adolescents were divided into 35 control group with childhood trauma and 34 without childhood trauma.All subjects were administrated for the morning 8:00 saliva samples to measure their cortisol levels by chemiluminescence.ResultsAdolescent depression patients demonstrated higher statistically meaningful scores than the healthy group. Comparison between depression group and control group scores showed that adolescent patient group has a high rate of statistically significant results than controls:CTQ beside the sex abuse, SCL-90,saliva cortisol level. While all the people divided into four groups,which the saliva cortisol,SCL-90 total score, SCL-90-R-obsession, SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL-90-R- hostility, SCL-90-R-psychosis in depression group with childhood traumahas a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with childhood trauma (p<0.05), depression group without childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with without childhood trauma(p<0.05), depression group with childhood traumahas a high rate of statistically significant results than depression group without childhood trauma (p<0.05),control group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than control group without childhood trauma (p> 0.05); SCL-90-R-somatizationin depression group with childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with childhood trauma (p< 0.05), depression group without childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with without childhood trauma (p<0.05). depression group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than depression group without childhood trauma (p>0.05), control group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than control group without childhood trauma (p>0.05); SCL-90-R-depression, SCL-90-R-paranoia in depression group with childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with childhood trauma( p< 0.05), depression group without childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with without childhood trauma (p<0.05), control group with childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group without childhood trauma (p< 0.05); depression group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than depression group without childhood trauma (p>0.05); SCL-90-R-anxiety, SCL-90-R-phobic anxiety,SCL-90-R-other points and HAMD-17-scores, PHQ-9 scores in depression group with childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group with childhood trauma (p<0.05), depression group with childhood trauma has a high rate of statistically significant results than control group without childhood trauma (p< 0.05).depression group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than depression group without childhood trauma (p>0.05), control group with childhood trauma has no statistically significant results than control group without childhood trauma(p>0.05).Correlation analysis showed that:Cortisolhas a positive relationship to childhood trauma emotional neglect, neglect total score, abuse total score. Early childhood traumatic event has a closely relationship to adolescent depression symptom spectrum. There was a positive correlation of emotional abuse and SCL-90-R-obsession, SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL-90-R-depression, SCL-90-R-hostility, SCL-90-R-paranoia, SCL-90-R-psychosis, SCL-90-R-other factors; positive correlation of physical abuse associated and SCL-90-R-somatization, SCL-90-R-obsession, SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL-90-R-depression, SCL-90-R-anxiety, SCL-90-R-hostility, SCL-90-R-paranoia, SCL-90-R-psychosis, SCL-90-R-other factor, HAMD-17 score; positive correlation of sexual abuse and SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity,SCL-90-R-psychosis,HAMD-17score; positive correlation of emotional neglect and SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL-90-R-paranoid; positive correlation of physical neglect and SCL-90-R-somatization, SCL-90-R-interpersonal sensitivity, SCL-90-R-depression, SCL-90-R-anxiety, SCL-90-R-hostility, SCL-90-R-paranoia, SCL-90-R-psychosis, HAMD-17 scores.ConclusionThe adolescent depression patients cortisol level increasing maybe associate with childhood trauma experience, childhood trauma then to increasing the susceptibility to depression, reducing adolescent ability to cope with stress,in the later days cope with stress/traumatic events in adulthood toinduce cortisol increasing, the teenagers prone to depression symptom, poor early childhood traumatic experiences make cortisol levels higher in patients with adolescent depression.