Salivary Chromogranin-A concentration as a possible biological marker for assessing psychological symptoms

Abstract

  Salivary Chromogranin A (CgA) is active in the sympathetic nervous system, and it is useful for detectingemotional stress. Therefore, it can be used as an indicator of mental load. This study examined the possibility of using salivary CgA as a biological marker indicating individual emotional personality traits. Scales for measuring mental health including anxiety and depressive symptoms were also administered. Saliva of university student participants (n = 53, 22 men and 31 women, mean age, 20.3 ± 1.2) was collected and SDS, STAI, and GHQ28 were administered to participants. The results indicated a negative correlation between salivary CgA and SDS (p < .01). Moreover, in women salivary CgA concentration of SDS-high-group was significantly lower than that of SDS-low-group (p <. 01). Furthermore, salivary CgA had a negative correlation with SDS. It was indicated that salivary CgA was related to SDS and that it might detect just individual traits of depression, based on anxiety and other neurotic symptoms.