RT Journal Article
T1 Low levels of morning salivary α-amylase activity predict higher number of depressive symptoms in a community sample of children
A1 Maldonado-Montero, Enrique Francisco
A1 Fernández-Martín, Eugenia
A1 Trianes-Torres, María Victoria
A1 Ortiz-Gálvez, María del Carmen
A1 Enguix, Alfredo
A1 Nislin, Mari
K1 Depresión en niños
AB Models of the etiology of depressive disorders suggest that theonset of a depressive episode is the result of a complex phenomenonbased on the interaction between genetic background, critical environmen-tal factors such as life stressors and traumatic events, and the effects ofneuroendocrine changes associated with the stress response. Numerousstudies have highlighted the usefulness of morning cortisol (C) as a poten-tial predictor of depressive episodes. The aim of this study was to comparethe effectiveness of C, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) activity/output, andthe sAA/C ratio in predicting depressive symptoms in a community sam-ple of 99 children aged 8-11 years old. Two saliva samples were obtainedin the morning on two different school days. Teachers described their pu-pils' behavior by using the internalizing problems scales of the Teacher’s Re-port Form (TRF) questionnaire. Our results indicate that, regardless of gen-der, the best predictor of depressive/withdrawal scores and overall inter-nalizing scores on the TRF was lower mean morning levels of sAA activi-ty. Hence, sAA could be proposed as a biological marker for the risk ofdeveloping a first episode of depressive illness in child samples.
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/32942
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/32942
LA eng
NO Maldonado, E., Fernández-Martín et al. (2018). Low levels of morning salivary α-amylase activity predict higher number of depressive symptoms in a community sample of children Anales de Psicología, 34(2), 224-232.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 24 ene 2026