Hair cortisol as a biological marker for burnout symptomatology

Psychobiological stress in vital exhaustion. Findings from the Men Stress 40 + study

“…and colleagues [40], using hair sampling, recently reported hypercortisolism in individuals suffering from burnout. As VE occurs when personal resources needed for the adaptation to stress are exhausted, VE may be regarded as a consequence of both long-term stress and burnout [36].…”

Endogenous cortisol in keratinized matrices: Systematic determination of baseline cortisol levels in hair and the influence of sex, age and hair color

“…Over the past decade, the validity of hair cortisol as a measure for long term cortisol secretion has been established and the usefulness of hair cortisol as a marker for chronic stress has been demonstrated [1]. It has also been shown that hair cortisol is associated with a range of pathological and/or psychological conditions, such as burnout, Cushing's syndrome, and mood and anxiety disorders [2][3][4]. Overall, these studies show that hair cortisol has a great potential in stress research but still further research is needed on fundamental aspects that might influence hair cortisol.…”

The Dresden Burnout Study: Protocol of a prospective cohort study for the bio‐psychological investigation of burnout

“…Upcoming analysis of longitudinal data will give further insight into the replicability and questions of causality regarding the observed effect. Recently published data on associations between hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) and burnout symptomatology by Penz et al () suggest alterations on level of the HPA axis. Burnout measured with a dichotomous classifier (high versus no/medial burnout symptomatology) was positively related to HCC, indicating hypercortisolism in individuals who suffer from chronic stress in burnout.…”