Salivary Cortisol and Stereotypy in Minimally Verbal Children with Autism: A Pilot Study

• Published in: Journal of developmental and physical disabilities Vol. 35; no. 4; pp. 631 - 646
• Main Authors: Dufour, Marie-Michèle, Lanovaz, Marc J., Plusquellec, Pierrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Autistic children; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Hormones; Multiple Regression Analysis; Original Article; Pediatrics; Psychology; Public Health; Repetitive behaviour; Salivary cortisol; Autism; Salivary cortisol; Stereotypy; Stress
• ISSN: 1056-263X; 1573-3580
• DOI: 10.1007/s10882-022-09871-8

Several studies have reported conflicting results when assessing associations between stress and repetitive behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some factors that may have caused these discrepant results include the monitoring of a single broad category for repetitive behaviors, the heterogeneity of the participants, and the use of indirect measures. To address the prior issues, our study explored the relationship between salivary cortisol and direct observation measures of stereotypy in four minimally verbal children with ASD. To this end, we combined an alternating-treatment design with multiple regression analyses to examine the interaction between the two variables. The analyses indicated that the mean value of cortisol was negatively associated with global and motor stereotypy. No significant relation was found between mean value of cortisol and vocal stereotypy. These results highlight the complex relationship between stress and stereotypy and emphasize the relevance of conducting research on a larger scale, which would have a direct impact on our understanding of a core feature of ASD.