The DeStress for Success Program: effects of a stress education program on cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology in adolescents making the transition to high school.

Various studies have shown that increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis can predict the onset of adolescent depressive symptomatology. We have previously shown that adolescents making the transition to high school present a significant increase in cortisol levels, the main product of HPA axis activation. In the present study, we evaluated whether a school-based education program developed according to the current state of knowledge on stress in psychoneuroendocrinology decreases cortisol levels and/or depressive symptoms in adolescents making the transition to high school. Participants were 504 Year 7 high school students from two private schools in the Montreal area. Adolescents of one school were exposed to the DeStress for Success Program while adolescents from the other school served as controls. Salivary cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology were measured before, immediately after as well as 3 months after exposure to the program. Measures of negative mood were obtained at baseline in order to determine whether adolescents starting high school with specific negative moods were differentially responsive to the program. The results show that only adolescents starting high school with high levels of anger responded to the intervention with a significant decrease in cortisol levels. Moreover, we found that adolescents who took part in the intervention and showed decreasing cortisol levels following the intervention (responders) were 2.45 times less at risk to suffer from clinical and subclinical depressive states three months post-intervention in comparison to adolescents who showed increasing cortisol levels following the intervention (nonresponders). This study provides the first evidence that a school-based program on stress is effective at decreasing cortisol levels and depressive symptomatology in adolescents making the transition to high school and it helps explain which adolescents are sensitive to the program and what are some of the characteristics of these individuals.

Genetic diversity of Streptococcus agalactiae strains colonizing the same pregnant woman.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of SmaI-DNA digests and serotyping was performed on 15 colonies of Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS) from each of 30 vaginal rectal colonized women. Five distinct GBS serotypes were observed among the 30 specimens (Ia, Ib, II, III and V). In 29 of the 30 samples, the same serotype was observed among all 15 colonies; in the remaining specimen, the 15 colonies yielded two serotypes (II and V). The PFGE profiles of all colonies in 27 of the 30 subjects were indistinguishable within each subject. In the remaining women, different DNA profiles were identified among the colonies in each specimen, one of whom carried two different serotypes. Furthermore, strains of the same serotype belonging to different women were genetically heterogeneous.