ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2022
The effects of momentary loneliness and COVID-19 stressors on hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis functioning: A lockdown stage changes the association between loneliness and salivary cortisol.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationships between primal emotional systems and the sense of loneliness: The mediating role of early maladaptive schemas.PloS one · 2026Article
- Hormonal and Behavioral Consequences of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Neuroendocrine Mechanisms and Clinical Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Investigating the impact of COVID-19 related worries and loneliness on alcohol consumption: an ecological momentary assessment.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Ecological Momentary Assessment to Measure Social Connectedness in Older Adults: Integrative Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Review
- Network analysis of loneliness, mental, and physical health in Czech adolescents.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Exploring the psychological impact of long COVID: symptoms, mechanisms, and treatments.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Evaluation of the effects of pandemic-related fears on anxiety and depression: the mediating roles of traumatic stress and loneliness.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- An Entertainment-Education Video and Written Messages to Alleviate Loneliness in Germany: Pilot Randomized Controlled Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Decision-Making and Risk-Propensity Changes during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown.Brain sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic can be characterized as a chronic stressor affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, indexed by glucocorticoids (e.g., cortisol). We investigated whether salivary cortisol level is increased during a lockdown and whether a lockdown condition affects the association between loneliness, specific COVID-19 related stressors and salivary cortisol level. We conducted a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study with 280 participants in Germany who experienced at least mild loneliness and distress amid COVID-19 from August 2020 to March 2021. We measured their momentary loneliness and COVID-related stressors including worries, information seeking behaviors and feelings of restriction during "no-lockdown" or "lockdown" stages amid COVID-19. Their salivary cortisol was measured 4 times on the last day of a 7-day EMA study. We found a significant increase in salivary cortisol levels during lockdown compared to no-lockdown. Lockdown stage was found to moderate the relationship between momentary loneliness and salivary cortisol level, i.e., loneliness was positively related to cortisol level specifically during lockdown. Mechanisms explaining the effect of forced social isolation on the association between loneliness and salivary cortisol need to be investigated in future studies.
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