Trial reportJournal of affective disorders2021
Cortisol effects on brain functional connectivity during emotion processing in women with depression.
Trial report in Journal of affective disorders, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of yoga exercise on stress relief capacity and emotional changes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of cortisol administration on heart rate variability and functional connectivity across women with different depression histories.Behavioural brain research · 2024Trial
- Effects of Cortisol Administration on Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Women with Depression.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2024Trial
- Gender differences in clinical correlates of glucose disturbance in patients with first-episode and drug-naïve major depressive disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Influence of chronic stress on network states governing valence processing: Potential relevance to the risk for psychiatric illnesses.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2023Review
- Repositioning synthetic glucocorticoids in psychiatric disease associated with neural autoantibodies: a narrative review.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2023Review
- Structural equation modeling of treatment-related changes in neural connectivity for youth with PTSD.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Characteristics of psychological time in patients with depression and potential intervention strategies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Psychopathic personality traits stress immunity and social potency moderate the relationship between emotional competence and cognitive functions in depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Neural signal variability relates to maladaptive rumination in depression.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Article
- Resting-state neural signal variability in women with depressive disorders.Behavioural brain research · 2022Article
- Impact of social reward on stress circuit function and regulation: Path differences between value affirmation and emotional support.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDepression is associated with altered functional connectivity and altered cortisol sensitivity, but the effects of cortisol on functional connectivity in depression are unknown. Previous research shows that brief cortisol augmentation (CORT) has beneficial neurocognitive effects in depression.
methodsWe investigated the effects of CORT (20mg oral cortisol) on functional connectivity during emotion processing in women with depression. Participants included 75 women with no depression or a depressive disorder. In a double-blind, crossover study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure effects of CORT vs. placebo on task-based functional connectivity during presentation of emotionally-laden images. We performed psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to test interactions among depression severity, cortisol administration, and task-dependent functional connectivity using the hippocampus and amygdala as seeds.
resultsDuring the presentation of negative images, CORT (vs. placebo) increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and putamen in association with depression severity. During the presentation of positive pictures CORT increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and middle frontal gyrus as well as superior temporal gyrus in association with depression. LIMITATIONS: Because cortisol was pharmacologically manipulated, results cannot be extrapolated to endogenous increases in cortisol levels. The sample did not permit investigation of differences due to race, ethnicity, or sex. Co-morbidities such as anxiety or PTSD were not accounted for.
conclusionsThe results suggest that CORT has normalizing effects on task-dependent functional connectivity in women with depression during emotion processing. Increasing cortisol availability or signaling may have therapeutic benefits within affective disorders.
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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.