ArticleAIMS neuroscience2020
Stress and serum cortisol levels in major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study.
Article in AIMS neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association Between Physical Activity, Heart Rate Variability and Major Depressive Disorders: An Umbrella Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Pooled it
- Unveiling the enigma of anxiety disorders and depression: from pathogenesis to treatment.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Association between COVID-19 infection, elevated C-reactive protein, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in individuals with metabolic and cardiovascular comorbidities.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Article
- Anxiety disorders: a cross-sectional study of clinical and biological associations.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Revisiting 'environmental effects': Directions for multidisciplinary investigations of air quality and psychopathology.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Correlation between clinical features of acute episode of major depressive disorder and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) function: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Crossroads of Neurodegeneration: Exploring the Overlap Between Alzheimer's Disease and Depression.Cureus · 2026Review
- The hidden burden of college life: Stress, sleep, and salivary biomarkers in students-A cross-sectional study.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Mental health and gut-brain crosstalk: implications for depression and Alzheimer's disease.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Early life stress alters microglia in ventral hippocampus and dorsal CA2 associated with anxiety-like behavior in adolescent male rats.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- Caspases and brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels and their Correlations with Psychiatric Symptoms in post-COVID-19.Neurotoxicity research · 2025Article
- Dysregulation of FGFR1 signaling in the hippocampus facilitates depressive disorder.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2025Article
- New perspectives on microbiome-dependent gut-brain pathways for the treatment of depression with gastrointestinal symptoms: from bench to bedside.Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B · 2025Review
- COVID-19, Anxiety, and Body Mass Index Increase Leptin Levels: a Cross-sectional Multicentric Study.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Article
- Testing the causal relationship of fat and sugar intake with depression and cortisol: a Mendelian Randomisation study.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Multiple sclerosis and personality traits: associations with depression and anxiety.European journal of medical research · 2024Article
- Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis and Antidepressant Treatment.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2024Review
- Risk factors and prognosis of depression in Takayasu arteritis patients.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2024Article
- Review
- Stress levels, psychological symptoms, and C-reactive protein levels in COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the disorders that most causes disability and affects about 265 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Chronic stress is one of the most prevalent factors that trigger MDD. Among the most relevant biological mechanisms that mediate stress and MDD are changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. Hypercortisolism is one of the relevant mechanisms involved in response to stress and is present in many people with MDD and in animals subjected to stress in the laboratory. This study aimed to investigate the levels of stress and cortisol in individuals diagnosed with MDD from the Basic Health Unit (BHU) in a small city in the western region of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Depression scores were assessed using Beck's inventory. For the investigation of stress, an adaptation with twenty-four questions of the Checklist-90-R manual was performed. The analysis of the cortisol levels in the individuals' serum was by the chemiluminescence method. Depression and stress scores were significantly higher in individuals with MDD than in control subjects (p < 0.001). Cortisol levels were also significantly higher in individuals with MDD (p < 0.05). Besides, depression scores were positively correlated with stress scores in individuals with MDD (Pearson's "r" = 0.70). Conclusion: Individuals with MDD had higher stress levels and cortisol than control subjects. The positive correlation between the levels of stress and depression in MDD individuals suggests that these conditions are related to a dysregulation of the HPA axis function.
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