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Hair glucocorticoids in adults with intellectual disabilities and depressive symptoms pre‐ and post‐bright light therapy: First explorations
Author(s) -
Hamers Pauline C. M.,
Savas Mesut,
Rossum Elisabeth F. C.,
Rijke Yolanda B.,
Bindels Patrick J. E.,
Festen Dederieke A. M.,
Hermans Heidi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 1360-2322
DOI - 10.1111/jar.12899
Subject(s) - psychology , depressive symptoms , intellectual disability , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , audiology , medicine , anxiety
Background Depressive symptoms and stress are common in adults with intellectual disabilities. Our aim was to explore long‐term biological stress levels, assessed by hair cortisol (HairF) and cortisone (HairE) concentrations, in adults with intellectual disabilities and depressive symptoms and to investigate the effects of bright light therapy (BLT) on hair glucocorticoids. Method Scalp hair samples ( n = 14) were retrospectively examined at baseline and post‐BLT (10.000 and 300 lux). Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry was used to measure hair glucocorticoids. Results A significant correlation was found between baseline HairF and depression scores ( r = .605, p = .028). Post‐intervention HairE levels were significantly increased ([95% CI: 11.2–17.4 pg/mg], p = .003), in particular after dim light (300 lux) ([95% CI: 10.0–18.3 pg/mg], p = .020). Conclusions This study showed that retrospectively examining biological levels of stress in adults with intellectual disabilities seems a potentially promising and objective method to gain insight in the stress level of adults with intellectual disabilities.