From the Department of Psychology (Wekenborg, Penz, Kirschbaum), TU Dresden, Dreseden, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Hill) and Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development (Hill), Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina; Department of Psychology (Thayer), The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; and ZNF - Center for Neuroscience Research NPO (Wittling), Trier, Germany.
Psychosom Med. 2019 Nov/Dec;81(9):791-798. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000750.
Previous research indicates a link between burnout symptoms and reduced vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV); however, the directionality of this relationship is still largely unknown. The objective of the present study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between HRV and burnout symptoms for 1 year, with a special focus on the emotional exhaustion (EE) burnout subdimension, which remains inadequately distinguished from overlapping with depressive symptoms.
Here we present HRV and behavioral data from 167 individuals (mean [SD] age = 43.43 [11.78] years; 30.5% male) who attended two biomarker samplings (T1 and T2) of the Dresden Burnout Study approximately 12 months apart.
In hierarchical linear regression analyses, T1 HRV significantly inversely predicted T2 overall burnout symptoms (β = -.16; p = .03) and EE (β = -.23; p = .02), adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, adverse health behaviors, and depressive symptoms. Importantly, only high EE at T1 (β = -.22; p = .04), and not the T1 Maslach Burnout Inventor total score, predicted reductions in HRV from T1 to T2.
We report for the first time longitudinal evidence that HRV is associated with changes in burnout symptoms, independently of depressive symptoms. Results suggest vagal dysfunction being predictive and specific for burnout symptoms, making HRV a promising starting point for the explanation of biophysiological mechanisms underlying burnout symptoms and cardiovascular diseases. The finding of only EE at T1 being predictive for changes in HRV underscores the importance of exhaustion for modulations in autonomic regulation.
先前的研究表明，倦怠症状与迷走神经介导的心率变异性（HRV）降低之间存在关联；然而，这种关系的方向性在很大程度上仍然未知。本研究的目的是在 1 年内检查 HRV 与倦怠症状之间的纵向关系，特别关注情感耗竭（EE）倦怠子维度，该维度与重叠的抑郁症状仍未得到充分区分。
在这里，我们展示了来自 167 名个体（平均[SD]年龄=43.43[11.78]岁；30.5%为男性）的 HRV 和行为数据，他们在大约 12 个月的时间内参加了两次德累斯顿倦怠研究的生物标志物采样（T1 和 T2）。
在分层线性回归分析中，T1 HRV 显著负向预测 T2 总体倦怠症状（β=-.16；p=.03）和 EE（β=-.23；p=.02），调整了年龄、性别、体重指数、不良健康行为和抑郁症状。重要的是，只有 T1 时的 EE 较高（β=-.22；p=.04），而不是 T1 时的 Maslach 倦怠量表总分，预测了从 T1 到 T2 的 HRV 降低。
我们首次报告了 HRV 与倦怠症状变化相关的纵向证据，与抑郁症状无关。结果表明，迷走神经功能障碍是预测和特定于倦怠症状的，使 HRV 成为解释倦怠症状和心血管疾病背后的生物生理机制的有前途的起点。仅在 T1 时的 EE 预测 HRV 变化的发现强调了衰竭对自主调节调制的重要性。
