ALTERED NEUROENDOCRINE ACTIVITY IN MALTREATED CHILDREN RELATED TO SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

This study examined the effects of stressful environments on physiolog ical and affective functioning among 131 maltreated school-aged childr en attending a summer day camp. Sixty-six nonmaltreated children also attending the camp served as a comparison group. Salivary cortisol mea sures were obtained daily at 10:00 a.m. and at 4:00 p.m. Depression wa s measured using the Child Depression Inventory. Children with scores of 19 or higher were classified as depressed. Internalizing and extern alizing behavior problems were determined from the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist. Children with t scores of 70 or high er were classified as having clinical levels of these problems. Maltre ated children had slightly elevated afternoon cortisol concentrations, but their morning concentrations did not differ significantly from th ose of nomnaltreated children. Neither clinical levels of depression, internalizing, or externalizing problems were predictive of the elevat ed afternoon values. Depression among maltreated children was, however , associated with altered activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adren ocortical (HPA) axis. Depressed maltreated children had lower morning cortisol concentrations compared to nondepressed maltreated children a nd were more likely to show a rise rather than the expected decrease i n cortisol from morning to afternoon. These data replicated earlier fi ndings. There was no evidence that depressed, nonmaltreated children e xhibited this change in diurnal cortisol activity.