Maternal PTSD associates with greater glucocorticoid sensitivity in offspring of Holocaust survivors
Section snippets
Participants
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), and all subjects provided written informed consent prior to participation. Participants were recruited through print and online advertisements in Jewish news outlets, second generation and other Jewish electronic mailing lists, advertisements at MSSM, and by word-of-mouth. Of the 120 participants recruited from 2010 through 2012, 94 were offspring of at least one Holocaust survivor and 26 were
Results
Sample characteristics and comparisons between the offspring and control groups are reported in Table 2. The groups were not significantly different in age, gender, BMI or education. The offspring group was more likely than the comparison group to have a current anxiety disorder diagnosis and to report symptoms of depression and anxiety on self report measures. Offspring were also more likely to report more child abuse and neglect on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Offspring had higher 24-h
Discussion
The major finding in this study is the demonstration of greater glucocorticoid sensitivity as indicated by both the LST and the DST, and lower urinary cortisol excretion in offspring, in association with maternal PTSD. Previous studies have demonstrated lower plasma cortisol levels in offspring in association with maternal PTSD (Yehuda et al., 2007b). Additionally, higher cortisol suppression in response to DEX has been demonstrated in an independent cohort of Holocaust offspring in association
Role of funding source
This work was supported by 1RC1MH088101-01 “Identification of an Epigenetic Risk Marker for PTSD” and Grant Number #UL1TR000067 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIMH and NIH had no further role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge Erin Koch for database management.
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