Relationship of personality traits and stress with functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis

The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion/ introversion) and stressful life events in childhood could be related to HPA axis reactivity. We studied 121 healthy adult men of Yakut ethnicity aged 18–25 years. High neuroticism and introversion have been found to be associated with lower blood cortisol. Stressful life events have been positively associated with neuroticism, but we failed to detect a significant correlation with ACTH and serum cortisol levels in young people.

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