Hair Glucocorticoid Levels in Parkinson’s Disease

    July 2020 in “ Psychoneuroendocrinology ”
    Leigh van den Heuvel, Stéfan du Plessis, Tobias Stalder, Debbie Acker, Clemens Kirschbaum, Jonathan Carr, Soraya Seedat
    TLDR People with Parkinson's disease have higher levels of cortisone in their hair, which may indicate chronic stress hormone dysfunction.
    This study investigated hair glucocorticoid levels in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and found that hair cortisone levels (hairE) were significantly higher in PD patients compared to controls, while cortisol levels (hairF) were not. Hair cortisone levels were positively associated with non-motor symptoms of PD, such as mood and anxiety, but not with metabolic syndrome (MetS) comorbidity. These findings suggested that hair cortisone levels might provide additional insights into hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction in PD. The study included 56 females, with 25 PD patients and 31 controls.
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