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Abstract:
The aim of the study was to examine the modulating effects of coping
style on the response to psychosocial stress in remitted major
depression (MD) and healthy controls. Thirty-three participants with a
lifetime history of MD, who were in remission, and 32 age- and
gender-matched healthy controls were recruited from a
longitudinal-epidemiological study, in which the presence or absence of
mental disorders was prospectively ascertained. Participants (aged 30-41
years) underwent two consecutive Trier Social Stress Tests (TSSTs).
Subjects with a lifetime history of MD showed larger plasma ACTH and
cortisol concentrations in response to both TSSTs, confirming a
disturbed hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation.
Moreover, the MD group reported less positive, adaptive coping
strategies and more negative, maladaptive strategies than the control
group. The amount of negative coping predicted the size of the plasma
cortisol response in the combined group. Our results demonstrate the
importance of psychological coping strategies for the investigation of
HPA axis response in depression. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.
