ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2022
Hair cortisol as a risk marker for increased depressive symptoms among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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11 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hair cortisol and cortisone and psychological well-being: an analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- The multifaceted role of hair as a biospecimen: recent advances in precision medicine and forensic science.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Stress in lockdown: exploring the interplay and effects of cortisol and psychological distress in parent-child dyads.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Article
- Review
- Genetic, Epigenetic, and Hormonal Regulation of Stress Phenotypes in Major Depressive Disorder: From Maladaptation to Resilience.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Determination of Cortisol Levels in a Small Volume of Saliva of COVID-19-Recovering Patients During Treatment with Psychotropic Drugs.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Sense of coherence, mental health, and hair cortisol concentrations among older people during the COVID -19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Endocannabinoids, endocannabinoid-like compounds and cortisone in head hair of health care workers as markers of stress and resilience during the early COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- [Urban-rural differentials in the relationship between personality traits and changes in depressive symptoms].Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences · 2023Article
- Targeting the Arginine Vasopressin VNeuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Review
- The relationship of adverse childhood experiences, hair cortisol, C-reactive protein, and polygenic susceptibility with older adults' psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Determining pre-existing biological risk markers of incident depression and other mental health sequelae after exposure to a new stressor would help identify vulnerable individuals and mechanistic pathways. This study investigated primarily whether hair cortisol predicted elevated depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 years later. A secondary aim was to deduce whether any association differed by sex.
methodsWe studied 1025 adults aged 50 and older (75% female) as part of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Hair cortisol samples were collected at 2014 (Wave 3) and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in 2014 (Wave 3), 2016 (Wave 4), 2018 (Wave 5) and again in 2020 as part of TILDA's COVID-19 Study. Hierarchical mixed effects logistic regression models were applied to investigate the association between cortisol levels and clinically significant depressive symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
resultsIn a full covariate adjusted model there was a significant interaction between cortisol and wave on depressive symptoms (χ2 = 8.5, p = .03). Cortisol was positively and significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 Study (OR =1.3, 95% CI 1.11, 1.56, p = .003), and was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting clinically significant depressive symptoms during first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when compared with before, OR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.05, 1.9, p = .015. There was no evidence of effect modification by sex.
conclusionsHigher hair cortisol, assessed 6 years previously, predicted clinically significant depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults during (but not before) the pandemic. Findings suggest a biological phenotype which denotes increased susceptibility to the negative impact of environmental stress on psychological health.
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