ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2012
Salivary cortisol in ambulatory assessment--some dos, some don'ts, and some open questions.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 227 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
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- Acute effect of orange chromatic environment on perceived health status, pain, and vital signs during chemotherapy treatment.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2020Trial
- An exploratory study of salivary cortisol changes during chamomile extract therapy of moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder.Journal of psychiatric research · 2018Trial
- Daily salivary cortisol patterns in midlife women with hot flashes.Clinical endocrinology · 2016Trial
- Maternal cortisol and stress are associated with birth outcomes, but are not affected by lipid-based nutrient supplements during pregnancy: an analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial in rural Malawi.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2015Trial
- Predicting developmental changes in internalizing symptoms: examining the interplay between parenting and neuroendocrine stress reactivity.Developmental psychobiology · 2014Trial
- Exposure to nature versus relaxation during lunch breaks and recovery from work: development and design of an intervention study to improve workers' health, well-being, work performance and creativity.BMC public health · 2014Trial
- Effects of Hatha yoga on blood pressure, salivary α-amylase, and cortisol function among normotensive and prehypertensive youth.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2014Trial
- Improving ambulatory saliva-sampling compliance in pregnant women: a randomized controlled study.PloS one · 2014Trial
- Longitudinal measurement of cortisol in association with mental health and experience of domestic violence and abuse: study protocol.BMC psychiatry · 2013Trial
- Maternal cortisol and parenting in infants' first 6 months: The moderating role of family stress.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Personality moderates associations between personal time and parental well-being.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Evaluation of the salivary biomarker cortisol in patients with temporomandibular disorders.Journal of oral & facial pain and headache · 2026Observational
- The role of neuroactive steroids in psychiatric and neurological disorders: Neurobiology and therapeutic perspectives.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Digital Stress Induction in Daily Life Using the Salzburg Mobile Stress Induction (SMSI): Development and Ambulatory Evaluation Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The impact of stress on health and disease is an important research topic in psychosomatic medicine. Because research on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation under controlled laboratory studies lacks ecological validity, it needs to be complemented by a research program that includes momentary ambulatory assessment. The measurement of salivary cortisol offers the possibility to trace the free steroid hormone concentrations in ambulant settings. Therefore, in this article, we first discuss the role of salivary cortisol in ambulatory monitoring. We start with a brief description of HPA axis regulation, and we then consider cortisol assessments in other organic materials, followed by a presentation of common salivary markers of HPA axis regulation suitable for ambulatory assessment. We further provide an overview on assessment designs and sources of variability within and between subjects (intervening variables), acknowledge the issue of (non)compliance, and address statistical aspects. We further give an overview of associations with psychosocial and health-related variables relevant for ambulatory assessment. Finally, we deal with preanalytical aspects of laboratory salivary cortisol analysis. The relative simplicity of salivary cortisol assessment protocols may lead to an overoptimistic view of the robustness of this method. We thus discuss several important issues related to the collection and storage of saliva samples and present empirical data on the stability of salivary cortisol measurements over time.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.