High glucocorticoid stress-responses are associated with prolonged freezing reactions and decreased active approach and avoidance behavior in animals. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of cortisol responses and trait avoidance on approach–avoidance behavior in humans. Twenty individuals were administered a computerized approach–avoidance (AA)-task before and after stress-induction (Trier Social Stress Test). The AA-task involved a reaction time (RT) task, in which participants made affect congruent and affect incongruent arm movements towards positive and threatening social stimuli. Affect congruent responses involved arm extension (avoidance) in response to angry faces and arm flexion (approach) in response to happy faces. Reversed responses were made in affect incongruent instruction conditions. As expected, participants with high cortisol responses showed significantly decreased RT congruency-effects in a context of social stress. Low trait avoidance was also associated with diminished congruency-effects during stress. However, the latter effect disappeared after controlling for the effects of cortisol. In sum, in agreement with animal research, these data suggest that high cortisol responses are associated with a decrease in active approach–avoidance behavior during stress. These findings may have important implications for the study of freezing and avoidance reactions in patients with anxiety disorders, such as social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In this study the effects of stress-induced cortisol increases on long-term memory retrieval during and after acute psychosocial stress were examined. Seventy male students were exposed to either a psychosocial stress task or to a non-stressful control task. During and after this task, retrieval was tested for idiosyncratic emotionally negative and neutral word pair associations that were learned 1 day or 5 weeks earlier. Within the stress condition, retrieval of negative words, 5 weeks after learning, was impaired both during and after the stress task compared to the control group. Further, during the stress task, when sympathetic activity was enhanced, impaired retrieval of both neutral and emotional words was significantly related to enhanced cortisol response. In contrast, after the stress task, when cortisol levels were still increased but sympathetic activity was low again, no association was found between cortisol increase and retrieval of either neutral or emotional material. These results are in line with the previous animal research showing that when arousal is high, cortisol increase can impair memory retrieval.

Background
Childhood trauma (CT) is a risk factor for depressive and anxiety disorders. Although dysregulated biological stress systems may underlie the enduring effect of CT, the relation between CT and separate and cumulative activity of the major stress systems, namely, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, the immune-inflammatory system, and the autonomic nervous system (ANS), remains inconclusive.
Methods
In the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA, n = 2778), we determined whether self-reported CT (as assessed by the Childhood Trauma Interview) was associated with separate and cumulative markers of the HPA-axis (cortisol awakening response, evening cortisol, dexamethasone suppression test cortisol), the immune-inflammatory system (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α), and the ANS (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period) in adulthood.
Results
Almost all individuals with CT (n = 1330) had either current or remitted depressive and/or anxiety disorder (88.6%). Total-sample analyses showed little evidence for CT being significantly associated with the separate or cumulative stress systems’ activity in adulthood. These findings were true for individuals with and without depressive and/or anxiety disorders. To maximize contrast, individuals with severe CT were compared to healthy controls without CT. This yielded slight, but significantly higher levels of cortisol awakening response (AUCg, β = .088, p =  .007; AUCi, β = .084, p =  .010), cumulative HPA-axis markers (β = .115, p =  .001), C-reactive protein (β = .055, p = .032), interleukin-6 (β = .053, p =  .038), cumulative inflammation (β = .060, p =  .020), and cumulative markers across all systems (β = .125, p =  .0003) for those with severe CT, partially explained by higher rates of smoking, body mass index, and chronic diseases.
Conclusion
While our findings do not provide conclusive evidence on CT directly dysregulating stress systems, individuals with severe CT showed slight indications of dysregulations, partially explained by an unhealthy lifestyle and poorer health.