title: Responses to stress in patients with psychotic disorders compared to persons with varying levels of vulnerability to psychosis, persons with depression and healthy controls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An experimental design was used to test whether self-reported, psychophysiological and symptomatic stress-responses increase as a function of the underlying vulnerability to psychosis as proposed by vulnerability-stress-models.
  
  
  METHODS
  Stress-responses of participants with psychotic disorders (PSY, n = 35) were compared to those of participants with attenuated positive symptoms (AS, n = 29), first-degree relatives of persons with psychotic disorders (REL, n = 26), healthy controls (HC, n = 28) and controls with depression (DEP, n = 30). Using a repeated measures design, participants were assigned to a noise stressor, a social stressor and a no stress condition in random order. Stress-responses were assessed via self-report, salivary cortisol levels, heart rate and skin conductance levels. State-paranoia and depression were assessed with clinical scales.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PSY reported to be significantly more stressed than HC, AS and REL across all conditions which went along with increased heart rate and decreased overall cortisol release. In contrast, AS showed elevated levels of cortisol. PSY showed a stronger response of self-reported stress to the noise condition compared to the no stress condition than HC, but no stronger response than the other samples. Furthermore, the stressors did not trigger stronger psychophysiological responses or symptom-increases in PSY.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The social stressor was brief and not individualized and did not have an effect on cortisol.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings support the notion that subjective stress-responsiveness increases with vulnerability, but not the assumption that symptoms arise directly as a function of stress and vulnerability. Also, the generally high levels of arousal seem to be more relevant to psychosis than the responsiveness to specific stressors.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: tania.lincoln@uni-hamburg.de.
authors.forename: Tania M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Lincoln
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Köther
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Maike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kempkensteffen
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moritz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Autonomic stress-responses; Depression; Endocrine stress-responses; Psychosis; Stress; Vulnerability