Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30290789›Full record

SynthesisBMC psychiatry2018

Salivary cortisol in post-traumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Xiongfeng Pan, Zhipeng Wang, Xiaoli Wu, Shi Wu Wen, Aizhong Liu

Open access · goldAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 13 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
86citing papers in PubMed, 13 pooled it
15.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

86 citing papers in PubMed, 13 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 188 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Auxiliary Screening COVID-19 by Serology.Frontiers in public health · 2022
    Pooled it
  3. Chemokines in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.Frontiers in immunology · 2022
    Pooled it
  4. Access to bike lanes and childhood obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021
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  14. Trial
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  16. Review
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  18. Article
  19. Stress and resilience: cortisol hypo-response to acute stress in non-resilient individuals.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026
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  20. Article

26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Xiongfeng PanDepartment of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Zhipeng WangDepartment of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Xiaoli WuDepartment of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Shi Wu WenDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Aizhong LiuDepartment of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China. lazroy@live.cn.
Central South University · CNOttawa Hospital · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundStudies investigating salivary cortisol level as susceptibility marker for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) produced inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to compare salivary cortisol concentration levels in PTSD patients with those in controls by synthesizing published data.

methodsWe did a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of studies comparing concentrations of salivary cortisol between patients with PTSD and controls. The electronic databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Psyc-ARTICLES were searched for relevant articles. A random-effects model with restricted maximum-likelihood estimator is used to synthesize the effect size (assessed by standardized mean difference).

resultsA total of 784 articles were identified of which 22 were included in the final analysis. A trend of lower salivary cortisol levels was found in PTSD patients when compared with the controls (SMD = - 0.28, 95% CI-0.53;-0.04, p = 0.022). Subgroup analysis showed that the salivary cortisol levels were lower in patients with PTSD than in controls in studies conducted after 2007 or in studies using saliva samples collected in the morning.

conclusionsThe evidence from this meta-analysis supports that salivary samples collected in the morning consistently showed a lower salivary cortisol level in patients with PTSD than in controls, although whether salivary cortisol could be used as a diagnostic tool requires further research.

Indexed as

BiomarkersHumansHydrocortisoneSalivaStress Disorders, Post-TraumaticBiomarkersHydrocortisoneMeta-analysisPost-traumatic stress disorderSalivary cortisolSystematic review

Identifiers

PMID30290789
PMCPMC6173866
OpenAlexW2895011038

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.