The Effect of Cortisol Administration on Neural Correlates of Emotion in Depression
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2020-11-15
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
There is good evidence to suggest that the pathological version of sadness that people with
Major Depression experience could be caused by the failure of the hormone cortisol to
properly inhibit sadness-related brain activity in the subgenual cingulate cortex. This
project investigates if the subgenual cingulate cortex has become insensitive to cortisol in
patients with depression and tests for variants of the cortisol receptor genes that could
predispose individuals to develop cortisol insensitivity.