Childhood trauma may contribute to poor lifelong health in part through programming of the HPA-axis response to future life stressors. To date, empirical evidence shows an association of childhood trauma with dysregulation of the HPA-axis and blunted cortisol reactivity to stressors. Here, we conduct an initial examination of childhood trauma as a moderator of changes over time in perceived stress levels and HPA-axis response to a major stressor in adulthood. Participants were 83 maternal caregivers of children newly diagnosed with cancer who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and who, over the year following their child’s cancer diagnosis, had hair samples collected up to 7 times for the assessment of cortisol and completed monthly measures of perceived stress. CTQ scores were in the expected range for a community sample and associated with changes in perceived stress and cortisol concentration over time (γ =.003, =.002; γ = −.0004, p =.008, respectively) independently of age, education, treatment intensity and randomization to stress management intervention. Maternal caregivers who endorsed childhood trauma showed a steeper decline in perceived stress and a larger increase in cortisol levels across the year than caregivers who recalled more childhood trauma. Findings extend animal models and studies that examine cortisol reactivity to acute stressors and suggest that childhood trauma may program a phenotype that is more psychologically reactive but shows a blunted HPA-axis response to chronic stress. While adaptive in the short-term, this early life programming may incur long-term costs for health. Further work is warranted to examine this possibility.

中文翻译：

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慢性生活事件应激源发生后一年内的童年创伤和头发皮质醇反应

童年创伤可能会导致终生健康状况不佳，部分原因在于 HPA 轴对未来生活压力的反应。迄今为止，经验证据表明童年创伤与 HPA 轴失调和皮质醇对压力源的反应减弱有关。在这里，我们对童年创伤进行了初步检查，将其作为感知压力水平和 HPA 轴对成年主要压力源的反应随时间变化的调节因素。参与者是 83 名新诊断出患有癌症的儿童的母亲照顾者，他们完成了儿童创伤问卷 (CTQ)，并且在孩子诊断出癌症后的一年内，收集了多达 7 次的头发样本以评估皮质醇，并完成了每月的测量感知到的压力。 CTQ 分数处于社区样本的预期范围内，并且与感知压力和皮质醇浓度随时间的变化相关（分别为 γ =.003，=.002；γ = -.0004，p =.008），与年龄无关，教育、治疗强度和压力管理干预的随机化。与回忆起更多童年创伤的母亲照顾者相比，认可童年创伤的母亲照顾者全年感知压力下降幅度更大，皮质醇水平上升幅度更大。研究结果扩展了动物模型和研究，检查皮质醇对急性应激源的反应，并表明童年创伤可能会产生一种更具有心理反应性的表型，但显示出 HPA 轴对慢性压力的反应迟钝。虽然这种早期生命规划在短期内具有适应性，但可能会带来长期的健康成本。需要进一步的工作来检验这种可能性。