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. 2021 Feb;37(1):45-59.
doi: 10.1002/smi.2971. Epub 2020 Jul 17.

Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase daily profiles and stress responses to an academic performance test and a moral cognition task in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Sophia Anesiadou  1 , Gerasimos Makris  1 , Maria Michou  2 , Paraskevi Bali  1 , Ioannis Papassotiriou  3 , Filia Apostolakou  3 , Panagiota Korkoliakou  4 , Charalampos Papageorgiou  5 , George Chrousos  1 , Panagiota Pervanidou  1
Affiliations

Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase daily profiles and stress responses to an academic performance test and a moral cognition task in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Sophia Anesiadou et al. Stress Health. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

There is evidence that children with neurodevelopmental disorders may exhibit atypical responses to stress and alterations in concentrations and diurnal secretion of stress hormones. We assessed diurnal profiles and stress responses of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (sAA) in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific learning disorder (SLD) compared to typically developing children (TD). A total of 157 children of both sexes, aged between 6 and 12 years old, took part in the study distributed into four groups: ADHD (N = 34), ASD (N = 56), SLD (N = 43) and TD (N = 24). Salivary samples were collected at three time points during a day, as well as before and 5 min after an academic performance test and a moral cognition task. ADHD children had lower evening and diurnal sAA levels, adjusted for age. Also, ASD children showed lower diurnal sAA secretion, adjusted for age. The mean percentage change for salivary cortisol and sAA after both tests did not differ between the groups. In conclusion, we demonstrated alterations in diurnal autonomic functioning in children with ADHD and ASD, while hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning did not differ between the clinical and the comparison groups.

Keywords: alpha-amylase; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; autism spectrum disorder; cortisol; neurodevelopmental disorders; specific learning disorder; stress.

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