ReviewPharmacological reports : PR2025
The cortisol axis and psychiatric disorders: an updated review.
Review in Pharmacological reports : PR, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Altered function of peripheral organ systems in first-episode drug naïve mental illnesses: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Short-term effects of urban versus forest bathing on stress, mood, sleep, immune function, and metabolic health: a randomized, open-label, 2 × 2 crossover trial.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2026Trial
- The association between pubertal timing and diurnal cortisol activity in middle adolescence.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Investigating associations between allostatic load phenotypes and clinical impairment in youth with chronic pain.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Review
- Treatment-Resistant Depression as a Heterogeneous Clinical Syndrome: A Personalized Medicine Framework for Diagnostic Reassessment, Suicide Risk, and Mechanism-Based Treatment.Journal of personalized medicine · 2026Review
- Sleep Architecture and Risk-Taking in Adolescents and Young Adults: Independent Contributions of REM Sleep, Sigma Activity, and Morning Cortisol.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exercise-induced neuropeptidergic and neurochemical neuroadaptation in stress regulation and emotional disorders.Acta neurologica Belgica · 2026Review
- Best practices for using biological data in psychological research.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Review
- Loneliness is associated with cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia: the mediating roles of sleep quality and anxiety.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- An Examination into the Anti-stress and Anti-fatigue Effects of an Ashwagandha Extract (Ashwa.30™) in Stressed Adults: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Trial.Advances in therapy · 2026Article
- Epigenetic legacies of famine: mechanistic pathways to obesity in modern environments.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Review
- Integrated biomarkers of oxidative stress NLRP3 inflammasome and kynurenine pathway reflect disease severity and diagnostic discrimination in depression.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Glucocorticoid Signaling in PSC-Derived Neural Systems to Elucidate Mechanisms of Stress-Induced Psychiatric Vulnerability.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Zika Virus Inoculation During Pregnancy Impaired Maternal Care and Altered Prolactin and Corticosterone Levels in Rats.Developmental neurobiology · 2026Article
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA in Psychiatric Disorders: Current Evidence, Inflammation-Based Stratification, and Future Perspectives.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The Impact of Pre-Existing Psychiatric Disorders on Gastric Cancer Stage and Mortality in Older Adults.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Cortisol-Responsive regulation of RASGRP1 in lymphoblastoid cells from individuals with bipolar disorder.BMC research notes · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cortisol, a key hormone in the body’s stress response, plays a complex role in the development and progression of various psychiatric illnesses. Elevated or dysregulated cortisol levels are linked to mood disorders, including anxiety and depression, where both high and low cortisol can impair cognitive function and emotional stability. In children, chronic stress and high cortisol exposure can lead to long-term behavioral problems, affecting memory, decision-making, and emotional regulation, especially when early-life adversity is present. Similarly, in adults, prolonged cortisol dysregulation often contributes to cognitive decline, mood instability, and an increased vulnerability to psychiatric conditions like major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Structural changes in stress-sensitive brain regions, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, are common, as chronic cortisol exposure can cause atrophy in these areas, affecting memory, fear responses, and executive function. This relationship underscores the critical role of managing stress and cortisol levels to prevent or alleviate psychiatric symptoms across the lifespan. In this review, the authors highlight the latest findings regarding the cortisol-psychiatric illness relationship and the available treatment options involving this target.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.