Timing matters: Long term effects of adversities from prenatal period up to adolescence on adolescents' cortisol stress response. The TRAILS study

Results highlight the importance to take the timing of stress exposure into account. In addition to programming effects, pre/postnatal adversity interacts with childhood adversity in producing deviant cortisol levels. Puberty may be marked by a transition in how adversities affect the HPA-axis, with cortisol hypersecretion before age 11 and hyposecretion after age 11.