Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2023 Mar;149:106026. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106026. Epub 2023 Jan 13.
Burnout is characterized by feelings of exhaustion, depersonalization as well as reduced personal accomplishment and is linked to various negative health effects. Previous studies on biological correlates of burnout have focused on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. However, especially studies on hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) were often based on cross-sectional data and yielded inconsistent results, probably due to the heterogeneity of the selected samples. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to investigate cross-sectional as well as longitudinal associations between burnout and HCC within a sample consisting of a strictly specified group of individuals suffering from burnout (BO group) and a healthy comparison group (HC group).
After a multi-stage recruitment procedure based on burnout symptoms and pathogenesis, eligible subjects (out of an initial sample of 1022 volunteers) were assigned either to a BO (n = 55) or HC group (n = 59), as described in detail in Bärtl et al. (2022). Burnout symptoms as well as HCC (1 cm hair samples) were measured repeatedly at two sampling time points t1 (n = 114) and t2 (n = 100) with an interval of M = 7.20 months (SD = 1.16) between assessments.
In the total study sample, no cross-sectional associations between burnout and HCC were found either at t1 or at t2. When the analysis was restricted to the BO group, HCC was positively related to burnout symptomatology at t1 but not t2. In the longitudinal analysis, burnout symptoms at t1 were significant negative predictors of HCC at t2. However, the change in HCC from t1 to t2 was not associated with the change in burnout symptoms.
In the present study, we investigated the association between HCC and burnout in a strictly defined sample of subjects suffering from burnout and healthy controls. Our findings mainly do not support our hypotheses. At least, the positive association between HCC and burnout symptoms only within the BO group supports the idea that HPA axis alterations in burnout might only become apparent once a certain threshold of burnout symptomatology has been exceeded, while the longitudinal data provide some empirical evidence for the potential long-term development of hypocortisolism in burnout. However, respective results remain relatively inconclusive.
burnout 以疲惫感、去人性化以及成就感降低为特征，与各种负面健康影响有关。以前关于 burnout 的生物学相关性的研究集中在下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴上。然而，特别是关于头发皮质醇浓度（HCC）的研究往往基于横断面数据，得出的结果不一致，这可能是由于所选样本的异质性所致。因此，本研究旨在调查在严格指定的 burnout 患者（BO 组）和健康对照组（HC 组）样本中，burnout 与 HCC 之间的横断面和纵向关联。
在基于 burnout 症状和发病机制的多阶段招募程序之后，合格的受试者（在最初的 1022 名志愿者样本中）被分配到 BO 组（n=55）或 HC 组（n=59），详见 Bärtl 等人（2022 年）的描述。在两个采样时间点 t1（n=114）和 t2（n=100），反复测量 burnout 症状和 HCC（1 cm 头发样本），两次评估之间的间隔 M=7.20 个月（SD=1.16）。
在整个研究样本中，在 t1 或 t2 时均未发现 burnout 与 HCC 之间存在横断面关联。当分析仅限于 BO 组时，HCC 与 t1 时的 burnout 症状学呈正相关，但 t2 时无相关性。在纵向分析中，t1 时的 burnout 症状是 t2 时 HCC 的显著负预测因子。然而，从 t1 到 t2，HCC 的变化与 burnout 症状的变化无关。
在本研究中，我们在严格定义的 burnout 患者和健康对照组中调查了 HCC 与 burnout 之间的关联。我们的研究结果主要不支持我们的假设。至少，HCC 与 BO 组中 burnout 症状之间的正相关支持了 HPA 轴在 burnout 中改变的观点，即只有当 burnout 症状达到一定阈值时，才会变得明显，而纵向数据则为 burnout 中潜在的长期低皮质醇症提供了一些经验证据。然而，相应的结果仍然相对不确定。
