Childhood trauma and hair cortisol response over the year following onset of a chronic life event stressor

Objective

Childhood trauma may contribute to poor lifelong health in part through programming of the HPA-axis response to future life stressors. To date, empirical evidence shows an association of childhood trauma with dysregulation of the HPA-axis and blunted cortisol reactivity to acute stressors. Here, we conduct an initial examination of childhood trauma as a moderator of changes over time in perceived stress levels and HPA-axis response to a major chronic stressor in adulthood.

Methods

Participants were 83 maternal caregivers of children newly diagnosed with cancer who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and who, over the year following their child’s cancer diagnosis, had hair samples collected up to 7 times for the assessment of cortisol and completed monthly measures of perceived stress.

Results

CTQ scores were in the expected range for a community sample and associated with changes in perceived stress and cortisol concentration over time (γ =.003, p =.002; γ = −.0004, p =.008, respectively) independently of age, education, treatment intensity and randomization to stress management intervention. Maternal caregivers who endorsed lower childhood trauma showed a steeper decline in perceived stress and a larger increase in cortisol levels across the year than caregivers who recalled more childhood trauma.

Conclusions

Findings extend animal models and studies that examine cortisol reactivity to acute stressors and suggest that childhood trauma may program a phenotype that is more psychologically reactive but shows a blunted HPA-axis response to chronic stress. While adaptive in the short-term, this early life programming may incur long-term costs for health. Further work is warranted to examine this possibility.