ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Elevated morning cortisol is a stratified population-level biomarker for major depression in boys only with high depressive symptoms.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cortisol and development of depression in adolescence and young adulthood - a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of brief exposure to virtual nature on mental wellbeing in adolescents.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Developmental mediation of genetic variation in response to the Fast Track prevention program.Development and psychopathology · 2015Trial
- Investigating a biopsychosocial model of depression in autistic youth: The intersection of cortisol and depressive symptoms.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Sex and adrenal hormone alteration in Ecuadorian adolescents with home and school proximity to floriculture crop area.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2026Article
- Neurobiology of resilience to early life stress.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Childhood maltreatment patterns are prospectively linked to adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury behaviors via diurnal cortisol.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Impact of postoperative delirium on long-term neurologic and neuropsychiatric outcome after cardiac surgery or percutaneous valve replacement-a prospective observational study.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Article
- Neuroendocrine mechanisms in the links between early life stress, affect, and youth substance use: A conceptual model for the study of sex and gender differences.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- Establishing Reference Intervals for Serum and Salivary Cortisol in a Selected Population in Kano, Nigeria.Annals of clinical and laboratory science · 2024Article
- Obesity and psychological distress.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Stress Biomarkers in Black Youth: Exploring Psychological, Behavioral, and Socio-Ecological Correlates.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2023Article
- Gender Differences in Cortisol and Cortisol Receptors in Depression: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The Relationship between Social Support and Mental Health Problems of Peri- and Postmenopausal Women during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- The pathophysiology and management of depression in cardiac surgery patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Nature-Based Meditation, Rumination and Mental Wellbeing.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- In(s) and out(s) of adolescent depression - Trajectories of development and recovery.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- Preventive strategies for adolescent depression: What are we missing? A focus on biomarkers.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MD) is a debilitating public mental health problem with severe societal and personal costs attached. Around one in six people will suffer from this complex disorder at some point in their lives, which has shown considerable etiological and clinical heterogeneity. Overall there remain no validated biomarkers in the youth population at large that can aid the detection of at-risk groups for depression in general and for boys and young men in particular. Using repeated measurements of two well-known correlates of MD (self-reported current depressive symptoms and early-morning cortisol), we undertook a population-based investigation to ascertain subtypes of adolescents that represent separate longitudinal phenotypes. Subsequently, we tested for differential risks for MD and other mental illnesses and cognitive differences between subtypes. Through the use of latent class analysis, we revealed a high-risk subtype (17% of the sample) demarcated by both high depressive symptoms and elevated cortisol levels. Membership of this class of individuals was associated with increased levels of impaired autobiographical memory recall in both sexes and the greatest likelihood of experiencing MD in boys only. These previously unidentified findings demonstrate at the population level a class of adolescents with a common physiological biomarker specifically for MD in boys and for a mnemonic vulnerability in both sexes. We suggest that the biobehavioral combination of high depressive symptoms and elevated morning cortisol is particularly hazardous for adolescent boys.
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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.