A team led by Dr. Audrey R. Tyrka, associate director of the Mood Disorders Program at Butler Hospital, has just published research in the journal Biological Psychiatry showing that the loss of a parent during childhood due to death or desertion can cause biochemical changes in the body and a possible heightened risk for psychiatric disorders in adulthood.
The researchers found adults who’d experienced long-term separation from a parent had changes in their levels of cortisol, a hormone that regulates the body’s reaction to stress.
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PBN: What led you to study this particular issue, cortisol levels and separation from a parent?
TYRKA: We know that stressful life events, such as childhood parental loss, are risk factors for the development of major depression and some anxiety disorders. Animal studies have shown that stressful conditions can change the biological stress response and can result in changes in brain regions that are implicated in depression and anxiety in humans. This is difficult to study in humans, in part because stress and trauma can be subjective. Loss of a parent in childhood is a clear stressor [and] a risk factor for depressive and anxiety disorders.
PBN: What does cortisol do, and what is the effect of producing too little or too much in response to stress?
TYRKA: Cortisol is involved in basic functioning including metabolism and immunity, and plays an important role in the stress response. In the context acute stress, cortisol helps the body to respond adaptively by releasing energy from storage cells, and enhancing memory and immunity, among other things. While this response is helpful when confronting an acute stressor, if the stress is excessive or prolonged, excess levels of cortisol may have negative effects on mood, cognition, metabolism and immune system function.
PBN: What did the study entail, and what were its main findings?
TYRKA: We compared 44 healthy adults with childhood parental death or desertion (prolonged separation of at least six months with no attempts by the parent to contact the child) with 44 healthy adults without childhood parental loss. They completed a test in which they are given stress hormones to provoke a cortisol response. We found that subjects with childhood parental loss had excessive cortisol responses. … We were also interested in how parental care by the remaining parent might influence the effect of parental loss. We found that the effect of loss was moderated by quality of care given by the remaining parent. In particular, individuals with parental desertion who had very low levels of parental care, or neglect, by the surviving parent had inadequate cortisol responses. This suggests the possibility that in severe cases, lack of parental care can result in a “burning out” of the adaptive stress response.
PBN: Do your findings point to potential therapeutic approaches?
TYRKA: Surviving parents are often under a great deal of stress themselves and often have limited resources. Certainly children and families who lose a loved one can benefit in multiple ways from increased supports. Some research shows that additional social supports can prevent some of the biological effects of stress. Interventions that provide emotional and other supports to children and families are likely to prevent or reverse some of these effects.
PBN: Where do you go next with these insights? Is there a follow-up study you would like to do?
TYRKA: Our current research is focused on understanding additional biological and environmental influences on the stress response. Ultimately our goal is to understanding how these processes interact so that we can develop more effective approaches to prevention and intervention for mood and anxiety disorders.
Butler Hospital is Rhode Island’s only private, nonprofit psychiatric and substance-abuse hospital for all ages. A founding member of the nonprofit Care New England Health System – which also includes Kent Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital, Care New England Home Health and the Care New England Wellness Center – Butler is affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. To learn more, visit www.carenewengland.org or www.butler.org.
