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Background: Person and environment-related childhood adverse events have been demonstrated to increase the risk of impaired mental health in later life differently for boys and girls. Altered hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning has been suggested as a key mechanism underlying this association. Cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) are both output hormones of the HPA-axis. DHEA may have a protective function against long-term exposure to increased levels of cortisol, but has been little investigated in relation to childhood adversity. Objective: We aimed to test the associations between person-, and environment-related childhood adversity and levels of cortisol, DHEA and cortisol/DHEA ratio in adolescent boys and girls. Methods: A total of 215 Dutch adolescents participated in the study and filled out the 27-item Adverse Life Events Questionnaire for the assessment of childhood adversity, which was split up in separate scores for person-related and environment-related events. Cortisol and DHEA concentrations and cortisol/DHEA ratio were determined in proximal 3 cm long hair segments. Additionally, saliva samples were collected immediately and 30 minutes after waking up, at noon and at 8 pm. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to test associations between childhood adversity and cortisol and DHEA concentrations, for boys and girls separately, with age, BMI and pubertal development as covariates. Results: Data were available for 74 boys and 116 girls with a mean age of 15.7 years (SD = 2.0). Higher levels of person-related childhood adversity were associated with higher hair DHEA levels in girls and with higher hair cortisol levels in boys. A trend towards a significant association was observed between higher levels of environment-related childhood adversity and higher DHEA levels in boys. Neither person- nor environment related childhood adversity was associated with cortisol/DHEA ratio. A trend was observed for environment-related childhood adversity and lower daily cortisol output in boys. Conclusion: We found differential associations between childhood adversity and cortisol and DHEA levels in girls and boys, for respectively person-related and environment-related childhood adversity. Our findings suggest that different types of childhood adversity are not only linked to levels of cortisol, but also to DHEA concentrations, in a sex-specific manner, with possible future implications for mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing up in an urban area has been associated with an increased chance of mental health problems in adults, but less is known about this association in adolescents. We examined whether current urbanicity was associated with mental health problems directly and indirectly via biological stress system functioning. Participants (n = 323) were adolescents from the Dutch general population. Measures included home and laboratory assessments of autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, neighborhood-level urbanicity and socioeconomic status, and mother- and adolescent self-reported mental health problems. Structural equation models showed that urbanicity was not associated with mental health problems directly. Urbanicity was associated with acute autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity such that adolescents who lived in more urban areas showed blunted biological stress reactivity. Furthermore, there was some evidence for an indirect effect of urbanicity on mother-reported behavioral problems via acute autonomic nervous system reactivity. Urbanicity was not associated with overall autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity or basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning. Although we observed some evidence for associations between urbanicity, biological stress reactivity and mental health problems, most of the tested associations were not statistically significant. Measures of long-term biological stress system functioning may be more relevant to the study of broader environmental factors such as urbanicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Abnormal physiological stress reactivity is increasingly investigated as a vulnerability marker for various physical and psychological health problems. However, studies are inconsistent in taking into account potential covariates that may influence the developing stress system. We systematically tested determinants (individual, developmental, environmental and substance use-related) of physiological and perceived physiological stress reactivity. We also examined the relation between physiological and perceived physiological stress reactivity. Method: In a stratified sample of 363 children (7–12 years) and 344 adolescents (13–20 years) from the general population, we examined cortisol, heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia and perceived physiological stress reactivity to a psychosocial stress procedure. Results: Using multivariate linear regression models, we found that individual, developmental, environmental and substance use-related factors were related to each of the stress response indices. These determinant factors were different for each of the stress reactivity indices, and different in children versus adolescents. Perceived physiological stress reactivity predicted cortisol reactivity in adolescents only. All other relations between perceived physiological and physiological stress reactivity were not significant. Conclusions: As physiological stress variables are often examined as vulnerability markers for the development of health problems, we maintain that it is essential that future studies take into consideration factors that may account for found relations. Our study provides an overview and indication of which variables should be considered in the investigation of the relation between physiological stress indices and illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both environmental risk and genetic variation is believed to play a role in substance use. A candidate environmental variable is parenting. Recent studies have found support for the idea that the dopamine system affects the susceptibility to environmental influences. In the present study we will examine the interplay between effects of parental monitoring and the presence of the DRD4 7-repeat allele in adolescent lifetime cannabis use and the developmental course of cannabis use. Methods: A total of 311 adolescents participated in a five-wave longitudinal design. First, we conducted logistic regression analyses to examine the prospective associations between parental monitoring, the DRD4 polymorphism, their interaction and lifetime cannabis use. Second, individual growth parameters were calculated for frequency of cannabis use. Linear regression was used to assess the relationship between parental monitoring, the DRD4 polymorphism, their interaction, and the frequency of cannabis use. Results:There were no significant main effects of parental monitoring or the DRD4 polymorphism. However, both analyses showed that over a period of four years, a) when experiencing low levels of parental monitoring, individuals with the 7-repeat allele were more likely to show lifetime cannabis use and a stronger increase in frequency of cannabis use than individuals without this allele; b) when experiencing high levels of parental monitoring, individuals with the 7-repeat allele were less likely to show lifetime cannabis use and they showed a smaller increase in frequency of cannabis use than individuals without the 7-repeat allele. Conclusions:This study shows that carriers of the DRD4 7-repeat allele are disproportionally affected by the negative and positive effects of parental monitoring such that carriers of the DRD4 7-repeat allele, as compared to non-carriers, are more likely to use cannabis when levels of parental monitoring are low, and less likely to use cannabis when parental monitoring levels are high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Although P300 amplitude reductions constitute a persistent finding in children of addicted parents, relatively little is known about the specificity of this finding. The major aim of this study was to investigate the association between parental rearing, adverse life events, stress-reactivity, substance use and psychopathology on the one hand, and P300 amplitude in response to both target and novel distracter stimuli on the other hand. Moreover, we assessed whether risk group status (i.e., having a parental history of Substance Use Disorders [SUD]) uniquely contributed to P300 amplitude variation above and beyond these other variables. Methods:Event-related potentials were recorded in high-risk adolescents with a parental history of SUD (HR;n=80) and normal-risk controls (NR;n=100) while performing a visual Novelty Oddball paradigm. Stress-evoked cortisol levels were assessed and parenting, life adversities, substance use and psychopathology were examined by using self-reports. Results:HR adolescents displayed smaller P300 amplitudes in response to novel- and to target stimuli than NR controls, while the latter only approached significance. Interestingly, the effect of having a parental history of SUD on target-P300 disappeared when all other variables were taken into account. Externalizing problem behavior was a powerful predictor of target-P300. In contrast, risk group status uniquely predicted novelty-P300 amplitude reductions above and beyond all other factors. Conclusion:Overall, the present findings suggest that the P300 amplitude reduction to novel stimuli might be a more specific endophenotype for SUD than the target-P300 amplitude. This pattern of results underscores the importance of conducting multifactorial assessments when examining important cognitive processes in at-risk adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]