Longitudinal measurement of cortisol in association with mental health and experience of domestic violence and abuse: study protocol

BMC Psychiatry

Study Protocol

Sarah Blake¹  Gene Feder¹  Victoria Powers²  Richard Morris³  Stafford Lightman⁴  Natalia V Lokhmatkina⁵ 

[1] Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol, UK;Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Marlborough Street, Bristol, UK;Primary Care and Population Health Department, University College London, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London, UK;School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol, UK;School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol, UK;Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol, UK;

关键词: Domestic violence;    Partner abuse;    Spousal abuse;    Battered women;    Abused women;    Cortisol;    Mental health;    Depression;    Anxiety;    Posttraumatic stress disorder;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-13-188

 received in 2013-01-14, accepted in 2013-07-10,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDomestic violence and abuse is threatening behavior, violence/abuse used by one person to control the other within an intimate or family-type relationship. Women experience more severe physical and sexual domestic violence and abuse and more mental health consequences than men. The current study aims at exploring of the role of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity in abuse impact on women's mental health. Study objectives: 1) To evaluate diurnal cortisol slope, cortisol awakening response, and the mean cortisol concentration in women with a current or recent experience of abuse; 2) To estimate whether cortisol secretion is associated with type, severity, duration and cessation of abuse; 3) To investigate whether cortisol acts as mediator between abuse and mental health condition; 4) To examine whether there is any distinction in cortisol levels between those women exposed to both childhood abuse and domestic violence and abuse and those experienced only the latter. 4) To explore whether cortisol secretion differs between women living in refuge and those still living in the community.Methods/DesignTo meet study objectives 128 women will be recruited in a domestic violence agency and local communities. Baseline and 3-month follow-up measures will be taken over 6 months after recruitment. Each assessment will include: (1) standardized self-administered questionnaires to evaluate socio-demographics, experience of violence and abuse, mental and physical health; (2) weight and height measurement; (3) self-completion of wakening, post-wakening and evening saliva samples. Saliva will be analysed for cortisol and cortisone using Ultra performance liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry.We will compare diurnal cortisol parameters between non-abused controls and abuse survivors with and without mental health conditions. First following descriptive statistics for all the cortisol and mental health outcomes, relationships between them will be investigated using appropriate regression models. Second, these techniques will be used to investigate the extent to which cortisol measures act as potential mediators between type, severity, duration of abuse and mental disorders.DiscussionResults of the study will increase our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of abuse-related mental health disorders in women and inform researchers and practitioners on the possibility of using salivary cortisol as a biological marker for prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment evaluation among abuse survivors.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov registration NCT01632553

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Lokhmatkina et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013