Twelve Months Follow-up of Salivary Cortisol in Relation to Psychological Distress and General Health in Swedish UN-personnel after Severe Combat Exposure during Six Months Mission in Bosnia

• Background: Our group has presented evidence of relationships between salivary cortisol levels and psychological distress before, during and after trauma-related stress. The aim of the present study was to confirm the part of evidence of relationships between salivary cortisol and posttraumatic distress and their change over time.Methods: Salivary cortisol levels at 8 AM and 10 PM and self-ratings were collected from 106 subjects six and twelve months after a six months UNmission in Bosnia. The rating instruments were the "Impact of Event Scale" (IES), the "Post Traumatic Symptom Scale" and the "General Health Questionnaire".Results: Significant statistical interactions were found between changes in mean cortisol levels and IES scores over time. Decreasing evening cortisol levels over time were significantly related to decreasing IES scores and vice versa. Morning cortisol levels showed negative, and evening cortisol positive correlations with all rating scores.Conclusions: The evidence from previous studies on trauma related stress, that salivary cortisol is related to the development of posttraumatic stress reactions, the morning cortisol in reverse (negative) direction to that (positive) of evening cortisol, were confirmed.

Keyword

Saliva

cortisol

follow-up

relation to

rating scales

traumatic stress

UN-soldiers

MEDICINE

MEDICIN

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)