Karger Publishers, Neuropsychobiology, 4(63), p. 232-241, 2011
DOI: 10.1159/000322146
Full text: Unavailable
<i>Background/Aims:</i> Schizotypy is viewed as a dimensional trait ranging from healthy people to schizophrenic spectrum patients. Stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and accumulated evidence suggests that schizophrenia is associated with altered HPA axis function; however, HPA axis function in relation to schizotypal personality has not been well documented. <i>Methods:</i> We examined the relationship between schizotypal traits as assessed with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and cortisol responses to the combined dexamethasone/corticotropin- releasing hormone test in 141 healthy volunteers. Subjects were divided into three groups based on their cortisol responses to the dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone test: incomplete suppressors, moderate suppressors, and enhanced suppressors. SPQ scores were compared between these three groups using the analysis of covariance, controlling for age and sex. <i>Results:</i> The analysis of covariance showed significant main effects of the suppressor status on the ideas of reference and suspiciousness/paranoid ideation subscales and cognitive-perceptual factor. Post-hoc analyses with Bonferroni correction revealed that the enhanced suppressors scored significantly higher than the moderate suppressors on these SPQ indices. <i>Conclusion:</i> These results indicate that nonclinical schizotypal traits in healthy adults are associated with blunted cortisol reactivity, potentially suggesting a shared neuroendocrinological mechanism across schizophrenia spectrum pathology.