title: Elevated Hair Cortisol Levels among Heroin Addicts on Current Methadone Maintenance Compared to Controls.
abstract: Whether methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) can improve the basal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is suppressed by long-term heroin consumption, is a matter of debate. The stress state and depression and anxiety symptoms may affect the basal activity of the HPA axis in MMT patients. However, the effect of psychological factors on HPA activity was not simultaneously controlled in previous studies. This study investigated differences in HPA basal activity between MMT patients and controls using psychological variables as covariates. The participants included 52 MMT patients and 41 age-matched, non-heroin-dependent controls. Psychological states were self-reported with the Perceived Stress Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. The hair cortisol level was adopted as a biomarker of HPA basal activity and was determined with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The results revealed that MMT patients had significantly higher hair cortisol levels than the controls (p<0.05), but the difference was not significant (p>0.05) when the perceived stress, depression and anxiety scores were used as covariates. We concluded that patients with long-term MMT showed higher basal activity of the HPA axis. The high chronic stress state and increase in depression and anxiety symptoms may mask the suppression effect of methadone on the HPA activity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
authors.forename: Jifeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center of Methadone Maintenance Treatment, Baixia District Hospital, Nanjing, 210004, China.
authors.forename: Guanyi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
authors.forename: Zuhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
authors.forename: Huihua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006197:Hair / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D003932:Heroin / Q000009:adverse effects; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D058850:Opiate Substitution Treatment; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000187:drug effects; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D003932:Heroin; D008691:Methadone; D006854:Hydrocortisone