Predicting Hair Cortisol and Cortisone Concentration in Postpartum Women through Repeated Measurements of Perceived Stress

Jessica Lang; Susanne Stickel; Petra M Gaum; Ute Habel; Jens Bertram; Simon B Eickhoff; Natalia Chechko

doi:10.3390/metabo11120815

Predicting Hair Cortisol and Cortisone Concentration in Postpartum Women through Repeated Measurements of Perceived Stress

Metabolites. 2021 Nov 29;11(12):815. doi: 10.3390/metabo11120815.

Authors

Jessica Lang¹, Susanne Stickel^{2

3}, Petra M Gaum¹, Ute Habel^{2

3}, Jens Bertram¹, Simon B Eickhoff^{4

5}, Natalia Chechko^{2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
² Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
³ Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine: JARA-Institute Brain-Structure-Function Relationship (INM 10), Research Center Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
⁴ Institute of System Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Moorenstraße 05, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁵ Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine: Brain and Behavior (INM 7), Research Center Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52425 Jülich, Germany.

Abstract

To investigate whether hair cortisol (HCC) and hair cortisone (HCNC) can be predicted by repeated stress reports from postpartum women in different mental health conditions (non-depressed, ND, adjustment disorder, AD, postpartum depression, PPD), 240 mothers (mean age 31.8 years; SD = 4.7) were monitored from within 1 to 6 days of childbirth over a period of three months. HCC and HCNC in 3 cm hair samples were assessed via triple mass spectrometry after liquid chromatographic separation. Every second day, participants reported their stress levels online. The summed perceived stress scores were not found to be predictive of HCC. However, perceived stress predicted a decrease in HCNC (r_Spearman = -0.153, p = 0.035) and an increase in the HCC/HCNC ratio (r_Spearman = 0.304, p < 0.001) in the ND group. With AD in the first few weeks after childbirth, an inverse effect appeared for HCNC (r_Spearman = 0.318, p = 0.011), suggesting an overall downregulation of the HPA axis owing to the stressful experience of adjusting to the new situation. No effects were found for mothers developing PPD. The indirect results of HPA-axis activity are better indicators of the experience of psychological stress in postpartum women than the absolute HCC value.

Keywords: cortisol; hair cortisone; postpartum women; stress experience.

Abstract

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