Psychoneuroendocrinology最新文献

{"title":"Exposure to EP-1 during lactation on maternal behavior, offspring early development, quinestrol transfer and relative receptors in maternal and offspring of Kunming mice","authors":"Peng Yu ,&nbsp;Chendong Wu ,&nbsp;Miao Cheng ,&nbsp;Jie Zhang ,&nbsp;Xiang Ji ,&nbsp;Yafei Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107638","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107638","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Maternal exposure to EP-1 (quinestrol: levonorgestrel = 1:2) during lactation harms the gonads and the reproduction of offspring. However, it is not clear how the mother’s exposure causes damage to the offspring, whether offspring are exposed to EP-1 through mother's milk, or how it affects the early neurodevelopment of the offspring. A control group, low-dose group, and high-dose group were administered EP-1 at 0, 3, and 5 mg/kg, respectively, and changes in maternal behaviors, hormones, relevant receptor expression in the brain and mammary glands, and quinestrol levels in blood and milk were examined. Offspring survival, body weight, hormone levels, and brain receptor expression were examined too. EP-1 exposure increased maternal behavior, serum estradiol, and oxytocin levels, but decreased prolactin. EP-1 exposure elevated estrogen receptor 1 and oxytocin receptor expression in the medial preoptic area (MPOA), ventral tegmental area (VTA), and estrogen receptor 1 in the mammary tissue, but decreased prolactin receptor expression in the MPOA, VTA, and mammary glands. Quinestrol was found in the blood and milk of maternal mice. In early pups, EP-1 exposure decreased offspring survival, body weight, testosterone, and growth hormone levels, and increased serum estradiol. EP-1 exposure decreased estrogen receptors 1 and 2 in the hypothalamus (HYP) and amygdala, and kisspeptin receptors (Kiss1R) in HYP in female offspring, but increased Kiss1R in male offspring. In conclusion, maternal EP-1 exposure during lactation increases maternal behavior and corresponding neuroendocrine hormones; quinestrol transmitted through milk and reduced milk may affect early offspring development, especially the neuroendocrine system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107638"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145252496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A unifying psycho-neuroendocrine-developmental model for the cortisol awakening response primes human cognition and emotion: 2025 Dirk Hellhammer award","authors":"Bingsen Xiong ,&nbsp;Chuqin Xiang ,&nbsp;Jianhui Wu ,&nbsp;Changming Chen ,&nbsp;Shaozheng Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Awakening is the daily switch from sleep to wakefulness, re-engaging sensing, movement, and prediction for survival. This transition accompanies with the cortisol awakening response (CAR), a hallmark of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, which serves as a sensitive neuroendocrine marker that influences human brain, emotion, cognition and health. Alterations in CAR are considered as a transdiagnostic risk factor for various psychiatric disorders. Here we synthesize multidisciplinary findings to propose a unifying Psycho-NeuroEndocrine-Developmental (PNED) Preparedness model that elucidates CAR’s proactive role in optimizing neural efficiency and dynamic resource allocation for anticipated cognitive and emotional demands across developmental contexts. We begin by reviewing the physiological bases of CAR and its associations with cognitive-emotional functioning. Subsequently, we integrate recent evidence demonstrating how CAR strategically primes hippocampal-prefrontal interactions to support memory and executive control, amygdala-prefrontal circuitry for emotion processing shaped by early life experiences, and large-scale neural network dynamics underlying executive and emotional functions. Mechanistically, CAR functions as a temporal orchestrator by setting up a tonic state of neuroendocrine activity that mobilizes metabolism and energy supply through mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor-dependent modulations of neuronal excitability. This process facilitates reactivation of routine memory engrams and prospective memory representations, enabling individuals to anticipate daily demands and challenges. The PNED model conceptualizes CAR as a proactive rather than reactive mechanism that works with stress-sensitive mediators, stimulus/task-driven phasic catecholaminergic actions to enable flexible allocation of neural resources. This perspective highlights CAR-induced brain preparedness that may underlie individual differences in vulnerability and resilience to stress across development, and positions CAR-mediated brain network interactions as promising targets for intervention. Finally, we discuss translational opportunities and future directions, including CAR-optimized chronotherapies and neuromodulation strategies. Collectively, our proposed model offers a unified framework for understanding CAR’s involvement in psychological, neuroendocrine, and developmental processes in ever-changing environmental contexts, with potential implications for personalized approaches to mental health disorders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107629"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145252479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Virtual reality based active shooter training: Added physical stress increases anxiety but not stress biomarkers","authors":"Nate Sutton ,&nbsp;M. Hunter Martaindale ,&nbsp;Stephanie Uriegas ,&nbsp;Courtney C. Dillard ,&nbsp;Matthew J. McAllister","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tactical first responders such as firefighters and law enforcement officers are often exposed to concurrent or consecutive stressors. Exposure to concurrent stress challenges (i.e., combined mental and physical stress) has been shown to exacerbate stress biomarker responses. However, this has not been shown with short duration stressors (e.g., &lt; 3 min). Therefore, this study compared markers of stress and perceived anxiety in response to a physical stressor [exercise alone; (EA)] to that of a dual stress challenge (DSC) which included a virtual reality based active shooter drill in addition to the exercise task. Fifty-four subjects (n = 54) completed either EA (n = 27) or DSC (n = 27). Measurements included salivary α−amylase (sAA), secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), heart rate (HR), and state anxiety inventory (SAI) which were collected four times: 1) 30 min prior to exercise 2) immediately prior to exercise 3) 5 min post exercise 4) 30 min post exercise. Both DSC and EA resulted in significant increases in salivary stress biomarkers (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). The DSC resulted in significantly greater SAI values 5 min post exercise compared to the EA treatment. A secondary analysis demonstrated significantly lower sAA concentrations overall in females (n = 25) compared to males (n = 29), as well as significantly lower SIgA at five and 30 min post stress compared to males. These findings demonstrated that added mental stress causes significant increases in perceived anxiety compared to physical stress alone, and females demonstrate reduced stress biomarker responses to acute stress.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107628"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Association of psychosocial stress and poverty with plasma and extracellular vesicle mitochondrial DNA levels","authors":"Tayla D. Hunter ,&nbsp;Nicole Noren Hooten ,&nbsp;Hannah E. Maul ,&nbsp;Nicolle A. Mode ,&nbsp;Ngozi Ezike ,&nbsp;Danielle L. Beatty Moody ,&nbsp;Alan B. Zonderman ,&nbsp;Michele K. Evans","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Perceived discrimination has been associated with poor age-related health outcomes, yet little is known about the molecular mechanisms. Previous data have indicated that exposure to acute psychological stress results in higher levels of circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-DNA) in blood. ccf-mtDNA is part of the damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) system where it can activate the innate immune system. The current study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination, race, and poverty with ccf-mtDNA in plasma and plasma-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in a cohort of African American and White men and women who experienced high or low perceived discrimination (N = 64). Ccf-mtDNA levels were quantified from plasma and plasma EVs. We found that among individuals living below poverty, those with higher perceived discrimination had lower ccf-mtDNA levels in both plasma and EVs than those with low perceived discrimination. With advancing age, ccf-mtDNA levels were higher in African American participants, while the opposite was observed in White participants. We also discovered that the EV inflammatory proteins IL-18 and Cystatin-D were associated with perceived discrimination and age, sex, or race. The presence of EV Caspase-8 and TNF were associated with perceived discrimination and poverty, while EV IL-8 and TNF and TWEAK were associated with perceived discrimination and sex. Our findings suggest that discrimination interacts with sex, race, and poverty to influence ccf-mtDNA levels in plasma and EVs and EV inflammatory proteins.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107622"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors influencing length of hospital stay among psychiatric inpatients in Montreal, Canada: The role of insulin, IL-6 and TNF-Alpha","authors":"Bahram Armoon ,&nbsp;Alain Lesage ,&nbsp;Charles-Édouard Giguère ,&nbsp;Keith Perry ,&nbsp;Signature Consortium ,&nbsp;Robert-Paul Juster ,&nbsp;Stéphane Guay","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107627","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107627","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a widely used indicator of healthcare efficiency and a key metric for evaluating the performance of psychiatric services. This study aims to identify predisposing, needs-related, and enabling factors associated with LOS among patients with psychiatric disorders admitted through the psychiatric emergency room in Montreal, Canada. A total of 600 individuals with mental health disorders who were hospitalized between 2012 and 2018 were interviewed. Guided by the Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations, factors influencing LOS were assessed using a negative binomial regression model. Longer LOS was associated with patients aged 60 and older, those diagnosed with psychotic and/or personality disorders at admission, individuals with elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels (a pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine), and those with a history of hospitalization. In contrast, shorter LOS was observed among patients with common mental health symptoms, substance use disorders (SUD), suicidal ideation, among those with elevated levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) or insulin. Targeted interventions such as Assertive Community Treatment for patients with personality disorders, intensive home care for those with psychotic disorders, and crisis resolution teams for individuals experiencing suicidal ideation or common mental health symptoms may help reduce hospitalization durations. For patients with SUD, improved referral systems and harm reduction–oriented outpatient care are recommended. Circulating biomarkers such as IL-6, TNF-α, and insulin may aid in early identification of patients at risk for prolonged stays and hold promise for integration into clinical decision-making and treatment. Further research is needed to validate these findings across diverse psychiatric populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107627"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145252471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Emotion dysregulation modulates the relation between emotional intensity and biological stress dysregulation among community women experiencing intimate partner violence","authors":"Nicole H. Weiss ,&nbsp;Melissa R. Schick ,&nbsp;Jillian R. Scheer ,&nbsp;Amy L. Stamates ,&nbsp;Alexa M. Raudales ,&nbsp;Reina Kiefer ,&nbsp;Ateka A. Contractor ,&nbsp;Tami P. Sullivan","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) are exposed to chronic stress. Stress has well-documented adverse effects on a range of health outcomes, particularly among women. The current study utilized rigorous methodology to advance understanding of stress dysregulation in women experiencing IPV. Specifically, we examined whether emotion dysregulation moderated the association between negative emotional intensity and HPA-axis dysfunction derived from hair cortisol (i.e., hyperactivity or excess cortisol production). The final sample included 95 women who were recruited from the community (<em>M</em>_age = 41.01; 44.6 % Black, Indigenous, or other Person of Color). Women reported on negative emotional intensity and emotion dysregulation three times a day for 30 days, and average (i.e., within-person mean) negative emotional intensity and emotion dysregulation scores were calculated. A hair sample was provided immediately following this 30-day period during a follow-up interview. We found that the relation between negative emotional intensity and hair cortisol levels was significant among women who reported high (but not low) emotion dysregulation. These findings advance research on the sustained (chronic) relations among negative emotional intensity, emotion dysregulation, and HPA-axis dysfunction, and underscore the need for additional research in this area.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107626"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145259090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A history of social adversity is associated with adolescents’ ex vivo inflammatory response","authors":"Nathalie Michels ,&nbsp;Thomas W. McDade ,&nbsp;Keegan C. Krause ,&nbsp;Aaron A. Miller ,&nbsp;Matteo Giletta","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107620","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107620","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Social adversity is consistently associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes, potentially through dysregulated inflammatory processes. Adolescence is a critical period for these effects to emerge. Traditional baseline measures of chronic inflammation often fail to capture the dynamic nature of inflammatory responses, highlighting the importance of assessing both inflammatory reactivity and sensitivity to inhibition. This study examined whether a history of social adversity predicts adolescents’ <em>ex vivo</em> inflammatory responses.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>As part of the longitudinal Outside-in study, 333 Belgian adolescents (13.9 ± 0.4 years, 44.1 % girls) provided blood samples via fingerprick in a school setting. Blood was incubated with lipopolysaccharide to assess inflammatory reactivity, and with lipopolysaccharide plus glucocorticoid (GC) to assess GC sensitivity. Cytokine responses were measured for IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. Social adversity, assessed through self-reported bullying victimization and victimization by adults over four waves spanning two years, was used as a predictor. Linear regression models adjusted for sex, pubertal status, and infection-related symptoms, while accounting for multiple testing.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A two-year history of social adversity predicted IL-6 (β=0.119) and TNF-α (β=0.123) reactivity but not GC sensitivity or IL-1β reactivity. Similar patterns were observed for concurrent social adversity and for the two types of adversity analyzed separately.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>In this community sample of adolescents, social adversity was associated with heightened inflammatory reactivity of TNF-α and IL-6. This increased reactivity might put adolescents at risk of developing chronic low-grade inflammation over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107620"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145160004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationships between childhood adversity, resilience, and inflammatory profiles in Taiwanese young adults","authors":"Manuel Salvador Villa Jaimes ,&nbsp;Siwahdol Chaimano ,&nbsp;Sheng-Hsiang Lin ,&nbsp;Yun-Hsuan Chang ,&nbsp;Cheng-Ta Yang ,&nbsp;Shulan Hsieh ,&nbsp;Joshua Goh ,&nbsp;Yen-Wei Chu ,&nbsp;Meng-Che Tsai","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107624","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107624","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Psychological resilience is the capacity to withstand and bounce back from stressors, trauma, and negative life events, such as childhood adverse experiences (ACEs). Yet, little is known about the biological mechanisms by which resilience mitigates the psychological effects of ACEs. We aimed to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) that reflect the combined effects of early life stress and psychological resilience by using an inflammatory proteomics panel. Three different resilience and ACE questionnaires were employed to classify participants into four groups according to high vs. low levels of resilience and ACEs. Forty-five age-matched and sex-matched participants were selected for proteomics profiling with Olink's 92-protein inflammatory panel. Of these, only 32 passed quality control filtering for analysis. Results showed that CD274 emerged as a protein hub in resilient profiles, while CXCL5 was central to ACE-related profiles. Network co-expression analysis revealed group-specific protein rewiring, suggesting dysregulated inflammation in individuals with high ACE. In contrast, high-resilience profiles showed stronger immune checkpoint co-expression, indicating more effective inflammatory resolution as a key trait of resilience. These findings suggest that resilience maintains an adaptive immune network architecture that may be leveraged to promote resilience after early adversity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107624"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145207382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mindfulness, the dual-hormone hypothesis, and performance in financial traders","authors":"Smrithi Prasad ,&nbsp;Mark van Overveld ,&nbsp;Amar Sarkar ,&nbsp;Jeffrey Lins ,&nbsp;Mark Fenton O’Creevy ,&nbsp;Ale Smidts ,&nbsp;Pranjal H. Mehta","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107621","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107621","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Steroid hormones such as testosterone are theorized to predict financial trading success. However, studies have reported inconsistent associations between hormones and financial trading performance and have largely overlooked interactions between multiple hormone systems and psychological factors that may influence hormones during trading. One such psychological state, mindfulness, is posited to influence hormone levels and improve trading performance. However, the hormonal pathway between mindfulness and financial trading performance remains untested. To address this gap, we examined the extent to which a brief mindfulness intervention influenced changes in testosterone and cortisol levels, and how these hormonal changes jointly predicted performance in a financial trading task in financial traders. Relative to a control group, traders who underwent the mindfulness intervention exhibited a reduction in cortisol levels and an elevation in testosterone levels. This dual-hormone profile – decreased cortisol and increased testosterone – was linked to better trading performance: elevated testosterone levels predicted higher earnings among traders whose cortisol levels decreased but not among traders whose cortisol levels increased. These findings offer initial insights into mindfulness-induced hormonal changes among traders, with downstream benefits for financial performance. We propose recommendations for further research on the endocrine pathways underlying mindfulness' influence on financial performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"182 ","pages":"Article 107621"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145207417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Longitudinal effects of pregnancy on PTSD symptoms in black female participants: Moderation by sexual trauma and progesterone","authors":"Mariana Rocha ,&nbsp;Rebecca Lipschutz ,&nbsp;Meghna Ravi ,&nbsp;Nicole R. Nugent ,&nbsp;Emma C. Lathan ,&nbsp;Shimarith Wallace ,&nbsp;Merom Arthur ,&nbsp;Sriya Karra ,&nbsp;Rebecca Hinrichs ,&nbsp;Jennifer S. Stevens ,&nbsp;Andrea Braden ,&nbsp;Suchitra Chandrasekaran ,&nbsp;Alicia K. Smith ,&nbsp;Abigail Powers ,&nbsp;Vasiliki Michopoulos","doi":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Black pregnant females experience disproportionately higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated health complications, which may be exacerbated by exposure to sexual trauma. Hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy, including progesterone, may also play a key role in modulating PTSD symptoms. The current study assessed how PTSD symptoms change over pregnancy and how sexual trauma and progesterone independently impact the trajectory of PTSD symptoms in a sample of under-resourced pregnant Black females. Participants (N = 283) completed up to three interviews assessing PTSD symptoms over pregnancy; the enrollment interview assessed pre-pregnancy trauma history. Progesterone concentrations were measured in a subset of participants (N = 91). Results from linear mixed models showed that PTSD symptoms decreased over the course of pregnancy, <em>Β</em>= -0.34, p&lt;.001, and that sexual trauma exposure was associated with higher initial PTSD symptoms, <em>Β</em> = 12.11, <em>p</em>&lt;.001, and a significant decrease in PTSD symptoms across pregnancy, <em>Β</em> = -0.48, <em>p</em> = .002. Individuals with no sexual trauma exposure did not show significant change in PTSD symptoms across pregnancy, <em>Β =</em>-0.14<em>, p</em> = .207. This pattern was observed for total PTSD symptoms and all symptom clusters. In the subset of participants with progesterone data, higher progesterone levels, relative to gestational age, was associated with a greater decrease in PTSD symptoms over pregnancy, <em>Β =</em>-0.01<em>, p</em> = .049. The current findings indicate that individuals with a history of sexual trauma demonstrate higher levels of PTSD symptoms early in pregnancy and suggest that PTSD symptoms may decrease over pregnancy via increasing progesterone levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20836,"journal":{"name":"Psychoneuroendocrinology","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107619"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145150689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}