Posted by Pfinstegg on October 27, 2002, at 15:06:21
In reply to Re: new trials of mefipristone » Pfinstegg, posted by SLS on October 26, 2002, at 23:32:54
No, not my idea at all, although thanks for the compliment! There are lots of hints about it in the "cortisol literature", but, of course, they can't stress pregnant women to see what happens to their children, and are just beginning to do prospective studies, measuring the women's cortisol, and then seeing what happens to the children's HPA axes during the course of their lives.
However, there are animal studies in which the pregnant females are stressed in various ways. Then, after they give birth, the HPA axes of their offspring are studied throughout life. The main finding so far is not so much steadily elevated levels of cortisol, but rather, extreme reactions of the HPA axis to moderate stressors.
Two articles (both readily available on google)which might be of interest are:
1. Alterations induced by gestational stress in brain morphology and behavior of the offspring, Prog Neurobiol 2001 Dec;65(5):427-31
2. Development of affective disorders: the legacy of prenatal stress, Maccari,S, Laboratory of Behavioral Neurosciences, Unversity of Lille, France The 5th Colloquium of the Society of Neurosciences, October, 2002
I hope you find these as fascinating as I did!
Pfinstegg
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:124268
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021025/msgs/125451.html