Asperger Syndrome Tied to Low Cortisol Levels

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John_Browning
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03 Apr 2009, 12:17 am

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090403/hl_hsn/aspergersyndrometiedtolowcortisollevels;_ylt=Ajhh0Wr49BaLoETjiP8xAXjgcbYF

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THURSDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.

U.K. researchers found that children with Asperger syndrome (AS) do not experience the normal twofold increase of cortisol upon waking up. Levels of the hormone in their bodies do continue to decrease throughout the day, though, just as they do in those without the syndrome.

The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other duties, to signal the body's need to adapt to changes occurring around it. It's thought that the increase shortly after waking helps jump-start the brain for the day ahead, the researchers said.

People with Asperger syndrome notably have very repetitive or narrow patterns of thought and behavior, such as being obsessed with either a single object or topic. Though tending to become experts in this limited domain, they have otherwise very limited social skills, according to the study.

"Although these are early days, we think this difference in stress hormone levels could be really significant in explaining why children with AS are less able to react and cope with unexpected change," study co-leader Mark Brosnan, from the psychology department at the University of Bath, said in a news release issued by the school.

If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to anxiety, the researchers said.

"This study suggests that children with AS may not adjust normally to the challenge of a new environment on waking," study researcher David Jessop, from the University of Bristol, said in the news release. "This may affect the way they subsequently engage with the world around them."

The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, will next study if this lack of cortisol upon waking also occurs in children with other types of autism.

That would certainly explain a lot of my problems getting up and going in the morning.

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Prosser
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03 Apr 2009, 12:20 am

Well that's interesting.

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EvoVari
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03 Apr 2009, 12:33 am

Quote from article.
"If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to anxiety, the researchers said".

Surely they have not just figured this out about Aspergers and our relationship to a feeling of a constant state of stress. The thought that most of our behaviours are stress induced has always been my thinking.

Thanks for the article post, fascinating link by the study.

sinsboldly
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03 Apr 2009, 12:41 am

I heard this on the BBC World service this morning and hunted it down in Google. Very interesting, although it is not EVERYTHING, it is certainly a lot.

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03 Apr 2009, 3:57 am

After Googling...

Quote:

If cortisol levels are low, one of the ways to sustain more normal levels is to slow or inhibit its breakdown. This can be accomplished naturally.

If that's the case then i wonder if taking licorice root is any good as it's supposed to slow or inhibit its breakdown?

Quote:

Note: People with heart conditions or high blood pressure should avoid ingesting extensive amounts of liquorice, as it can further heighten blood pressure and lead to stroke.

Freebird
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03 Apr 2009, 4:11 am

This is interesting as at the beginning of last year I had all these tests including checks on my hormone levels. The only thing that came up was that my cortisol levels were unusualy low.

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03 Apr 2009, 4:13 am

i would say i have large amounts of cortisol floating around in me. waves of sweat/panic etc, i am sure anyone with an anxiety disorder is familiar with this, and a natural result of stress is cortisol (not the other way around). however i would also say that i have learnt how to pretend to be NT quite well in comparison with my likely actual neurology. does this mean:
1. agree with article: i am not autistic/do not have AS. i can be as high-cortisol as i wish.
2. agree with article: i am either not autistic/do not have AS or not anxious. no one has autism and anxiety at the same time.
3. agree with article: i was born with low cortisol and have anxiety in order to emulate the NT-ness, which creates an anxiety disorder in itself, although i have higher-than-this net cortisol which somehow still registers as below normal.
4. disagree with article: i was born with normal cortisol and have anxiety so actually i have high cortisol.
5. disagree with article: you haven't proved causality or controlled for enough factors, so i don't believe you.
6. something else.

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03 Apr 2009, 4:28 am

John_Browning wrote:

If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to anxiety, the researchers said.

In my case that would have meant supermarkets, large parties, Primary School and bullies.

The thing is, that I have to eat and interact in order to survive.

How am I going to do that if I avoid situations like these all the time?

Exams have caused me stress, but I've still had to sit them.

What about life's necessary evils, or that lady behind the counter who won't refund your money?

Even some so called normal people have major issues getting through an "average day"...

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03 Apr 2009, 8:24 am

Interesting. I wonder if I am low on Cortisol then. :?:

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03 Apr 2009, 9:12 am

(Moved this from the other topic. Can mods merge things around here? If so, they should.)

That's no new conclusion. We already know we react more severely to stress; and since the brain is what triggers the release of cortisol (well, technically, the hypothalamus makes CRH which makes the pituitary secrete ACTH which makes the adrenal glands produce cortisol), the description of "different wiring" is still basically what they're saying it is.

Link to the study

This is preliminary, of course. They had only 38 subjects, which is nowhere near as many as you need to prove anything conclusively. I can't tell anything more because you have to pay to read the dang thing. (Of course.)

What interests me is that they detected the low cortisol levels just after the Aspie subjects woke up. That seems to indicate some kind of circadian-rhythm element. But I may just be biased because an odd sleep-wake cycle is a large part of my own case; I know at least one autistic person with a clockwork-regular daily cycle.

If you read the abstract, the Aspies they checked didn't have "low cortisol" per se; they had an absence of the cortisol peak that occurs in most people just after waking. That says things about more than just cortisol, as this particular peak seems to be an indicator of your endocrine system's functioning in general. In other words... your brain's wired oddly and giving odd signals to your endocrine system...

They need to check the pineal gland next.

More on the cortisol awakening response

Quote:

Can social skills really be skills if they're hormone driven?

Yes. Remember that you grew up with this different wiring, including different hormones, which affects how you learn and how you perceive the world--and affects how your brain changes as you grow. Hormones are interconnected with neurology; they're the way the brain communicates with the rest of the body (well, one way; the other way is nerves, obviously). Autism isn't called a "developmental disorder" just because it starts early; it's also a condition that you grow up with, part of the scaffold on which your brain builds itself.

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03 Apr 2009, 11:24 am

Callista wrote:

(Moved this from the other topic. Can mods merge things around here? If so, they should.)

.

and our members can be proactive by supplying a link to the thread to merge. Moderators would be happy to do the merge but searching in all the discussion heads to find what ever the name of the thread might be is a bit of a burden if you already know the link. Just a copy and paste will do!:)

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03 Apr 2009, 12:19 pm

i knew it was something like that because my blood sugar always seems low and ive occasionally fainted in my life for no apparent reason. ive never been checked for diabetes so i dont know it could be that?

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03 Apr 2009, 2:33 pm

EvoVari wrote:

No kidding, that was one of the first things I learned about autism.

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03 Apr 2009, 2:37 pm

The other thread--
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt95564.html

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yhan
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17 Sep 2011, 12:24 pm

Could poor sleep explain the lower morning cortisol spike? Normally, cortisol increases 2 fold in the morning. Apparently, sleep problems are common in autistics. They tend to have abnormal circadian rhythm. It's often hard for me to hustle myself.
It's interesting because of the bad rap about cortisol causing belly fat and the long term effects of stress. It would seem that autistics are healthier because of lower cortisol levels

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06 May 2018, 7:25 pm

John_Browning wrote:

U.K. researchers found that children with Asperger syndrome (AS) do not experience the normal twofold increase of cortisol upon waking up. Levels of the hormone in their bodies do continue to decrease throughout the day, though, just as they do in those without the syndrome.

Very interesting. I just did a cortisol test on myself, and that's exactly the pattern I found: 1st and 2nd readings after waking were abnormally low; by late in the day, levels remained low and so ended up matching the normal pattern (which is to drop in the evening).

You can get a cortisol test from Amazon and have it done yourself (if you have an idiot doctor who won't order one). It's pretty expensive, but if it reveals important information you can't get otherwise then it may be worth it.

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