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Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank

Due to its anti-glucocorticoid properties, the steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) might play a role for coping with traumatic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The majority of studies report elevated DHEA secretion and decreased cortisol/DHEA ratio associated with traumatic...

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Autores principales: Schindler, Lena, Shaheen, Mohammed, Saar-Ashkenazy, Rotem, Bani Odeh, Kifah, Sass, Sophia-Helen, Friedman, Alon, Kirschbaum, Clemens
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30678071
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9020020
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author Schindler, Lena
Shaheen, Mohammed
Saar-Ashkenazy, Rotem
Bani Odeh, Kifah
Sass, Sophia-Helen
Friedman, Alon
Kirschbaum, Clemens
author_facet Schindler, Lena
Shaheen, Mohammed
Saar-Ashkenazy, Rotem
Bani Odeh, Kifah
Sass, Sophia-Helen
Friedman, Alon
Kirschbaum, Clemens
author_sort Schindler, Lena
collection PubMed
description Due to its anti-glucocorticoid properties, the steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) might play a role for coping with traumatic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The majority of studies report elevated DHEA secretion and decreased cortisol/DHEA ratio associated with traumatic stress, however, contrasting results have also been published. One reason for this heterogeneity might be that in past studies, DHEA has been measured in plasma or saliva samples reflecting acute hormone levels. In comparison, the current study assessed the hair levels of DHEA and cortisol as long-term markers along with self-reported data on psychopathology and coping in 92 female adolescents aged 11–16 from the West Bank affected by the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Results showed that trauma-exposed individuals had significantly higher DHEA levels (p = 0.013) and lower cortisol/DHEA ratios (p = 0.036) than participants from the non-trauma group. Furthermore, DHEA and cortisol/DHEA ratio emerged as associated with trauma load and timing, but not with coping. By applying the novel method of DHEA analysis from hair samples, this study adds to the growing literature on the interplay of DHEA, cortisol, traumatic stress and coping, and provides valuable starting points for further research.
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spelling pubmed-64063422019-03-13 Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank Schindler, Lena Shaheen, Mohammed Saar-Ashkenazy, Rotem Bani Odeh, Kifah Sass, Sophia-Helen Friedman, Alon Kirschbaum, Clemens Brain Sci Article Due to its anti-glucocorticoid properties, the steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) might play a role for coping with traumatic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The majority of studies report elevated DHEA secretion and decreased cortisol/DHEA ratio associated with traumatic stress, however, contrasting results have also been published. One reason for this heterogeneity might be that in past studies, DHEA has been measured in plasma or saliva samples reflecting acute hormone levels. In comparison, the current study assessed the hair levels of DHEA and cortisol as long-term markers along with self-reported data on psychopathology and coping in 92 female adolescents aged 11–16 from the West Bank affected by the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Results showed that trauma-exposed individuals had significantly higher DHEA levels (p = 0.013) and lower cortisol/DHEA ratios (p = 0.036) than participants from the non-trauma group. Furthermore, DHEA and cortisol/DHEA ratio emerged as associated with trauma load and timing, but not with coping. By applying the novel method of DHEA analysis from hair samples, this study adds to the growing literature on the interplay of DHEA, cortisol, traumatic stress and coping, and provides valuable starting points for further research. MDPI 2019-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6406342/ /pubmed/30678071 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9020020 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schindler, Lena
Shaheen, Mohammed
Saar-Ashkenazy, Rotem
Bani Odeh, Kifah
Sass, Sophia-Helen
Friedman, Alon
Kirschbaum, Clemens
Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title_full Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title_fullStr Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title_full_unstemmed Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title_short Victims of War: Dehydroepiandrosterone Concentrations in Hair and Their Associations with Trauma Sequelae in Palestinian Adolescents Living in the West Bank
title_sort victims of war: dehydroepiandrosterone concentrations in hair and their associations with trauma sequelae in palestinian adolescents living in the west bank
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30678071
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9020020
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