UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Richards, Jessica MargaretSubject: search.filters.subject.cocaine

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    HPA axis reactivity to psychological stress among cocaine dependent individuals
    (2011) Richards, Jessica Margaret; Lejuez, Carl W; Daughters, Stacey B; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Due to the high prevalence of illicit drug use and subsequent costs to society, researchers have focused on potential mechanisms underlying continued substance use and dependence. One mechanism of interest is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary hormone, cortisol. Chronic substance use is associated with elevated basal cortisol concentrations and a blunted cortisol response to stress which has been shown to predict substance use outcomes. However, little is known about the specific conditions under which drug users display a dysregulated cortisol response to stress. Therefore, the current study compared HPA axis response to two different psychological stressors among a sample of cocaine dependent individuals. Results indicated no significant differences in cortisol response across conditions. Future researchers should conduct larger scale studies with carefully matched healthy non-drug using participants to determine whether the absence of a significant stress effect on cortisol functioning is specific to chronic cocaine use.