Similarity in saliva cortisol measures in monozygotic twins and the influence of past major depression

Background: Some studies suggest that cortisol may be render genetic contro l. The aims of our study were to investigate the familial resemblance in mo rning and everting cortisol secretion as assessed by saliva cortisol and to assess the influence of history of major depression. Methods: Women for this investigation were selected fi-om an ongoing study in female-female twin pairs ascertained from the Virginia Twin Registry. Te lephone screening assured that current inclusion/exclusion criteria were me t. Subjects were asked to collect AM samples within 45 min after awakening and evening samples immediately before bedtime for 14 days. Results: There was a high degree of correlation across weeks in both the AM and PM cortisol values, indicating significant stability across individual s, There was significant correlation between AM and PM cortisol in monozygo tic twins. In twins with a history of major depression (n = 30), compared w ith the twins without past major depression (n = 28), there was a trend tow ards higher cortisol (p = .056), Conclusions: These results suggest that around 40-45% of the total variance in salivary cortisol is shared by monozygotic twins. Although the increase in baseline cortisol in twins with a history of major depression is only s ignificant at the trend level, the effect size is comparable to art "in epi sode" depressed population. (C) 2000 Society of Biological Psychiatry.