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Maternal stress beginning in infancy may sensitize children to later stress exposure: effects on cortisol and behavior

Biological PsychiatryPublished 1 October 2002
Marilyn J. Essex, Marjorie H. Klein, Eunsuk Cho, Ned H. Kalin
Citations693
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score4.68
SNIP2.24

TL;DR

It is shown that exposure to early maternal stress may sensitize children's pituitary-adrenal responses to subsequent stress exposure, and found that preschoolers with high cortisol levels exhibited greater mental health symptoms in first grade.

Abstract

These results link the findings of preclinical studies to humans by showing that exposure to early maternal stress may sensitize children's pituitary-adrenal responses to subsequent stress exposure.

Keywords

PsychologyMedicineNeuroscience