Childhood stressful events, HPA axis and anxiety disorders

Table 4 Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis functioning and its correlation with psychopathology and childhood traumata in social phobia patients

Author	Control group	Sample	Cortisol levels	CRH levels	Stress test	Correlations with childhood traumata and psychopathology
Potts et al[100], 1991	15 HC	10 SP	= Urinary	-	-	-
Levin et al[103], 1993	14 HC	36 (28 generalized SP + 8 specific SP)	= Plasma	-	Ten-minute talk	-
Uhde et al[101], 1994	-	54-64 SP patients	= Plasma and urinary	-	= DST (Dex 1 mg)	-
Martel et al[105], 1999	21 HC	27 SP	= Salivary basal and task-related	-	Modified TSST	Correlated to anticipatory anxiety in both groups
Furlan et al[104], 2001	17 HC	18 SP	After speech task: ↑ 90% increase in salivary levels in 7 SP; ↓ 32% in salivary LE in 11 SP. After exercise task: =	-	Public speaking task and physical exercise task	-
Condren et al[32], 2002	15 HC	15 SP	↑ Plasma cortisol after test; = plasma cortisol basal	= Basal and after test	Public mental arithmetic and short term memory test	-
van West et al[106], 2008	25 HC	25 SP	↑ Salivary cortisol after test	-	Public speaking test	Correlated to trait but not state anxiety levels
Roelofs et al[107], 2009	22 HC, 17 patients with PTSD	18 SP	↑ Salivary cortisol after test	-	Social approach-avoidance task in social stress condition (TSST)	Cortisol increase correlated to the social avoidance behavior
Elzinga et al[99], 2010	16 SAD w/o CA, 16 HC, 16 PTSD with CA	9 SAD with CA	↑ Salivary cortisol after test; = salivary cortisol basal	-	TSST	CA is associated with ↑ cortisol reactivity to TSST
Lanzenberger et al[102], 2010	18 HC	12 subjects with SP	↓ Plasma levels	-	-	Negative correlations with 5HT binding in brain regions and positive correlation with trait anxiety

HC: Healthy controls; DST: Dexamethasone suppression test; TSST: Trier social stress test; SAD: Separation anxiety disorder; CA: Childhood abuse; SP: Social phobia; PTSD: Posttraumatic stress disorder; Dex: Dexamethasone.