ArticlePloS one2015
Cortisol and α-Amylase Secretion Patterns between and within Depressed and Non-Depressed Individuals.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Salivary Cortisol and α-amylase Level, Anxiety and Depression in Students: A Randomized and Parallel-Group Clinical Trial.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2025Trial
- Uncovering complexity details in actigraphy patterns to differentiate the depressed from the non-depressed.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Bear Bile Powder Alleviates Corticosterone-induced Depression-like Behavior in Female Mice by Protecting Hippocampal Neurons via the BDNF/TrkB/ CREB Pathway.Current pharmaceutical design · 2026Article
- Stress, Well-Being, and Reproduction in Wildlife.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Sleep quality and the biological stress system during an internet-based intervention for major depressive disorder.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Stress-reducing effect of laughter in live comedy performance from salivary α-amylase and salivary oxytocin.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Assessing REM Sleep as a Biomarker for Depression Using Consumer Wearables.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Acute psychological stress promotes implicit aggression: Evidence from behavior and ERPs.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Current Strategies and Future Directions of Wearable Biosensors for Measuring Stress Biochemical Markers for Neuropsychiatric Applications.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Unlocking optimism in everyday life: a short-term study on the power of live comedy to reduce stress and anxiety in general public.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Anxiolytic and Antidepressant Effect ofScientifica · 2024Article
- The digestion and dietary carbohydrate pathway contains 100% gene mutations enrichment among 117 patients with major depressive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Dynamics of diurnal cortisol and alpha-amylase secretion and their associations with PTSD onset in recent interpersonal trauma survivors.Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Salivary Markers of Stress in Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren in Rural Appalachia: The Role of Mental Health, Religiosity, and Social Support.Journal of intergenerational relationships · 2023Article
- Psychological stress-induced increase in the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) may be a predictor of cardiovascular events.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2022Article
- Inter-brain neural mechanism underlying turn-based interaction under acute stress in women: a hyperscanning study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Article
- The independent association between salivary alpha-amylase activity and arterial stiffness in Japanese men and women: the Toon Health Study.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2022Article
- 'Doctor, I am so stressed out!' A descriptive study of biological, psychological, and socioemotional markers of stress in individuals who self-identify as being 'very stressed out' or 'zen'.Neurobiology of stress · 2022Article
- The Impact of Music on Stress Biomarkers: Protocol of a Substudy of the Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in ELderly Care (MIDDEL).Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Emotional intelligence, cortisol and α-amylase response to highly stressful hyper-realistic surgical simulation of a mass casualty event scenario.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAssociations between biological stress markers and depression are inconsistent across studies. We assessed whether inter- and intra-individual variability explain these inconsistencies.
methodsPair-matched depressed and non-depressed participants (N = 30) collected saliva thrice a day for 30 days, resulting in 90 measurements per individual. The relationships between measures of stress-system function and depression were examined at the group level by means of mixed model analyses, and at the individual level by means of pair-matched comparisons. The analyses were repeated after adjusting for time-varying lifestyle factors by means of time-series regression analyses.
resultsCortisol and α-amylase levels were higher, the α-amylase/cortisol ratio larger, and the daily cortisol slope steeper in the depressed compared to the non-depressed group. Adjusting for lifestyle factors and antidepressant use reduced the associations under study. In 40%-60% of the matched comparisons, depressed individuals had higher cortisol and α-amylase levels, a larger α-amylase/cortisol ratio, and a steeper daily slope than their non-depressed match, regardless of adjustment.
conclusionsOur group-level findings were mostly in line with the literature but generalization to individuals appeared troublesome. Findings of studies on this topic should be interpreted with care, because in clinical practice the focus is on individuals instead of groups.
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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.