Hormone responses to social stress in abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects and social drinkers with no history of alcohol dependence.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have described blunted stress hormone responses after pharmacological activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in sober alcoholics. The aim of the present study was to compare ACTH, cortisol, and prolactin responses to a psychological stressor in abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects matched to healthy control subjects.


METHODS
Individuals who met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a history of alcohol dependence but not for other axis I disorders were included in the study (n = 18; mean duration of abstinence +/- SEM, 3.5 +/- 5.7 years). Social drinkers (n = 23) served as control subjects. The sober alcohol-dependent and control subjects were matched for demographic measures including levels of stress symptoms. All subjects underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a laboratory-based psychological stressor. Prestress and poststress plasma ACTH, cortisol, and prolactin levels, as well as a self-report measure of anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), were obtained.


RESULTS
Nondepressed, abstinent alcoholics and control subjects did not differ with regard to age, racial composition, or baseline or poststress ratings of anxiety. Whereas ACTH and cortisol levels increased in response to the TSST, prolactin levels did not. Stress hormone response curves for the three hormones did not differ between the alcoholics and control subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
When matched for levels of stress, a laboratory-based psychological stress test did not induce differential hormone response curves for abstinent alcoholics and control subjects.
Munro
Cynthia A
CA
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Oswald
Lynn M
LM
Weerts
Elise M
EM
McCaul
Mary E
ME
Wand
Gary S
GS
D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000097:blood*; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000097:blood; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood*; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D011388:Prolactin / Q000097:blood*; D012016:Reference Values; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000097:blood*
D000431:Ethanol; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; D011388:Prolactin; D006854:Hydrocortisone