A blunted cortisol awakening response and hippocampal atrophy in type 2 diabetes mellitus
Open accessAbstract
There is emerging evidence from healthy individuals, as well as direct and indirect evidence from psychiatric and neurological patients with disease-related hippocampal atrophy, linking the cortisol awakening response (CAR) to hippocampal volume. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disease that is also accompanied by hippocampal atrophy, and therefore can serve as a model for ascertaining the relationship between CAR and hippocampal volume. We contrasted a group of 18 individuals with T2DM with 12 matched controls on MRI-based hippocampal volume and salivary diurnal cortisol profile including CAR. Individuals with T2DM had smaller hippocampal volumes and exhibited a blunting of the CAR relative to controls, while diurnal cortisol was not affected. Across all subjects, fasting insulin and hippocampal volume were associated with the CAR, independent of diagnosis. Our findings support the hypothesis that hippocampal integrity is an important predictor of the CAR.
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Two studies reported a lower CAR in participants with T2DM than in controls but no association with the cortisol slope, and another study found no association between T2DM and any cortisol parameter across the day.
“with two studies reporting a lower CAR in participants with T2DM than in controls 33, 34 but no association with the cortisol slope 33, and the other study finding no association between T2DM and any cortisol parameter across the day 35 .”
From Type 2 diabetes mellitus and psychological stress — a modifiable risk factor (2017) · cites this paper as [33]
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- Authors
- Bruehl, H., Wolf, O. T., & Convit, A.
- Affiliations
- NYU Langone Health (US)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Convit, Antonio
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-07
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 815-821
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2774914
- OpenAlex
- W2048578851
- Cited by
- 142
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 4.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (P30 AG 08051, P30AG008051)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK064087, DK 064087)
- National Center for Research Resources (M01 RR 00096, M01RR000096)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Keywords
- cortisol awakening response, hippocampal atrophy, hippocampal volume, type 2 diabetes, diurnal cortisol, salivary cortisol, fasting insulin, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neuroendocrine dysfunction
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Arousal, Atrophy, Brain, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Middle Aged, Organ Size, Saliva, Case-Control Studies
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