Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction that may persist into remission. Preliminary evidence suggests that this dysfunction may be associated with impaired neuropsychological performance in remitted MDD. MDD with psychotic features (“psychotic depression”) is associated with greater neuropsychological and functional impairment than nonpsychotic depression, including in remission. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory study was to examine the relationships among hair cortisol concentration (HCC) – a marker of longer term endogenous cortisol exposure – and history of psychotic features, neuropsychological performance, and functioning in remitted MDD. Methods: This cross-sectional study compared the relationship between HCC and (i) history of psychosis, (ii) neuropsychological performance, and (iii) everyday functioning in a group of 60 participants with remitted later-life MDD using Pearson’s correlation coefficients. This study also measured HCC in a group of 36 nonpsychiatric volunteers to examine the clinical significance of HCC in the patient group. Results: There were no statistically significant correlations between HCC and history of psychotic features, neuropsychological performance, or functioning. Furthermore, there was no clinically meaningful difference in HCC between patients and nonpsychiatric volunteers. Conclusion: This study is the first to examine HCC in psychotic depression. The results do not support the hypothesis that impaired neuropsychological performance, and everyday function in remitted psychotic depression is due to a sustained elevation of cortisol.
Neuropsychobiology

中文翻译：

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头发皮质醇与晚年重度抑郁症缓解后的精神病史、神经心理学表现和功能的关系


简介：重度抑郁症 (MDD) 与下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴功能障碍有关，这种功能障碍可能会持续到缓解期。初步证据表明，这种功能障碍可能与缓解型 MDD 的神经心理学表现受损有关。与非精神病性抑郁症相比，具有精神病性特征的 MDD（“精神病性抑郁症”）与更大的神经心理和功能损伤相关，包括缓解期。因此，这项探索性研究的目的是检查头发皮质醇浓度 (HCC)（长期内源性皮质醇暴露的标志物）与缓解型 MDD 的精神病特征史、神经心理学表现和功能之间的关系。方法：这项横断面研究使用皮尔逊相关系数比较了 60 名晚年 MDD 缓解的参与者中 HCC 与 (i) 精神病史、(ii) 神经心理学表现和 (iii) 日常功能之间的关系。这项研究还测量了 36 名非精神病志愿者的 HCC 情况，以检验 HCC 在患者组中的临床意义。结果： HCC 与精神病特征史、神经心理学表现或功能之间没有统计学上显着的相关性。此外，患者和非精神病志愿者之间的 HCC 没有临床意义的差异。结论：这项研究是第一个检查精神病性抑郁症中的 HCC 的研究。结果并不支持这样的假设：精神性抑郁症缓解后神经心理表现和日常功能受损是由于皮质醇持续升高所致。
 神经心理生物学