SALIVARY CORTISOL AND CARDIOVASCULAR ACTIVITY DURING STRESS IN OPPOSITIONAL-DEFIANT DISORDER BOYS AND NORMAL CONTROLS

Background: Arousal-regulating mechanisms are important in explaining individual differences in antisocial behavior, Methods: Alterations in salivary cortisol concentration and cardiovascular activity were stud ied in 21 boys with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and 31 normal controls (NC) during a 2-hour stressful procedure involving frustratio n and provocation. Results: Baseline levels of heart rate (HR) were si gnificantly lower in the ODD group, bur their HR levels were higher du ring provocation and frustration. Cortisol levels in the ODD group wer e overall lower than those of the NC group, and the effect of stress s eemed to be minimal and similar for both groups; however, individual d ifferences were large. Since anxiety plays an important mediating role in cortisol response, subjects were divided into one of four groups b ased on the intensity of their externalizing behavior and anxiousness, Cortisol increase dice to stress exposure was strongest in highly ext ernalizing and highly anxious subjects; cortisol decrease was stronges t in those subjects who were high in externalizing behavior and low in anxiousness, Conclusions: The results of the study support art import ant role for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis sympathetic autonomic functioning in persistent antisocial behavior in young boys. (C) 1998 Society of Biological Psychiatry.