SynthesisTranslational psychiatry2017
Early-life adversity and cortisol response to social stress: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Translational psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 187 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
187 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 369 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dimensions of early life adversity and cardiometabolic health in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Pooled it
- Exposure to community violence and biomarkers of allostatic load: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2025Pooled it
- Early childhood stress responses to psychosocial stressors: The state of the science.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Pooled it
- Childhood violence exposure and externalizing behaviors: A systematic review of the role of physiological biomarkers.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- Associations between childhood maltreatment and behavioral sleep disturbances across the lifespan: A systematic review.Sleep medicine reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Neurostructural traces of early life adversities: A meta-analysis exploring age- and adversity-specific effects.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Childhood Adversities and Salivary Cortisol Responses to the Trier Social Stress Test: A Systematic Review of Studies Using the Children Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- The impact of maternal care and blood glucose availability on the cortisol stress response in fasted women.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2021Trial
- Stress-induced cortisol reactivity as a predictor of success in treatment for affective dimensions.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Trial
- Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Experimental Pain Sensitivity and Cortisol Responses in Women With Early Life Abuse: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Psychosomatic medicineTrial
- The correlations between psychotic symptoms and childhood maltreatment as well as sex differences in adolescents with major depressive disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sex-specific mechanisms of childhood trauma-related HPA axis dysregulation: Insights across four regulatory probes.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Early Adversity Imprints Multisystem Biological Aging: A Longitudinal Study of Adversity Dimensions and Aging Phenotypes Across Adolescence.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Early Childhood Emotional, Relational, and Stress-Related Outcomes Following Infant Cardiac Surgery.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Is Stress Reactivity an Intermediary Mechanism in the Association Between NR3C1 Methylation and Adolescent Loneliness?Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Primary tooth emergence in young children is associated with a stress biomarker.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2026Article
- Detecting effects of yoga therapy on heart rate variability and autonomic nervous system functioning in adults after cancer treatment: results from a study using single-subject experimental methods.BioPsychoSocial medicine · 2026Article
- Glucose as fuel for HPA axis regulation: A narrative review on energy metabolism, stress reactivity, and early life adversity.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Salivary cortisol reactivity to stress in pregnancy: A scoping review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Childhood Sexual Abuse and Rates of Loneliness in Adulthood.JAMA network open · 2026Article
127 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early-life adversity has been associated with a life-long increased risk for psychopathology and chronic health problems. These long-term negative effects have been explained through stress sensitization, which may involve dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis through either increased or decreased reactivity. The present meta-analysis assessed for the first time the effect of early-life adversity on cortisol response to social stress. Thirty data sets were included in the meta-analysis, in which early-life adversity and salivary cortisol response to social stress were assessed in 4292 individuals of different ages. Results indicated a moderate effect size (g = -0.39) in overall cortisol levels across studies. Separate analyses of cortisol at different stages of response showed large effect sizes at peak and recovery, and a moderate effect at baseline. Heterogeneity was large in this sample of studies and several moderators were identified. The effect size was larger in studies that focused on maltreatment compared to those that included other adversities, and in adults compared to children and adolescents. Percent of women in each sample and methodological quality were positive predictors of the effect size. Publication bias may be present, but the analysis was hampered by the high heterogeneity. Therefore, these results support the association between early-life adversity and blunted cortisol response to social stress, and they suggest that the long-term negative effects of early-life adversity may reach maximum levels in adults.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.