Relationship between salivary cortisol and depression in adolescent survivors of a major natural disaster

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of salivary cortisol levels for screening mental states such as depression in adolescents following a natural disaster. We examined the relationship of salivary cortisol levels in adolescent survivors of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake with the depression subscale of the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Subjects were 63 adolescent survivors (age = 14.29 years ± 0.51) who were administered the GHQ and provided saliva samples thrice daily (morning, afternoon and evening) over the course of 3 days. Based on the GHQ-depression subscores, subjects were divided into low and high depression groups. About 22 % of the subjects were classified into the high symptom group. When data collected over 3 days were used, a significant difference was observed between the two groups in the salivary cortisol levels at the evening time point as well the ratio of the morning/evening levels (p < 0.05). Analyzed by means of receiver-operating characteristic curves, the morning/evening ratios showed a good power in discriminating between subjects with and without depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that repeated measurement of salivary cortisol levels over 3 days has utility in screening for depressive states in adolescents following a natural disaster.

Fig. 1

Protocol for collecting the saliva and subjective evaluation. C collection of the saliva, Q general health questionnaires, M morning, N noon, E evening

Fig. 2

Distribution the GHQ-28 depression subscale. Scores across the three assessment days

Fig. 3

Temporal changes in the concentrations of salivary cortisol. *p < 0.05

Fig. 4

Comparison of salivary cortisol concentrations between high and low groups at each time point. *p < 0.05, NS not significant

Fig. 5

Comparison between high and low groups by the evening time point during this experiment. *p < 0.05, NS not significant

Fig. 6

Comparison of salivary cortisol concentrations between high and low groups by the difference (M–N and M–E) and slope (M/N and M/E) in salivary cortisol. * p < 0.05, NS not significant

Fig. 7

Comparison between high and low groups by the M/E ratio during this experiment. *p < 0.05, NS not significant

Fig. 8

ROC curve using the M/E ratio of the concentration of salivary cortisol over 3 days