Physiological Reorganizations of Thyroid Secretion in Law Enforcement Officers Depending on the Intensity of Professional Risk

Abstract

Dangerous professions are associated with working conditions in which work factors cause a threat to the life of an employee and a high risk of injury. Employees of law enforcement agencies (the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, emergency staffs) are included in the list of dangerous professions. Their work is associated with the presence of a threat to life and health, psychological and physical overstrain, fatigue, suddenness of events with a shortage of time, information overload, etc. Their adaptive mechanisms are often distorted. Among them, one of the most vulnerable is the endocrine system. The aim is to study the hormonal supply of the body with the pituitary – thyroid gland system in persons of dangerous professions (law enforcement officers) at various levels of professional strain. Materials and methods: in different groups of law enforcement officers (combatants, regular policemen, cadets), a study was conducted to identify the features of thyroid hormone status (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) were determined). The results of the study: the analysis of the results showed the presence of statistically significant differences in most of the studied indicators between the study groups. In the group of combatants, the average level of TSH and T3 is higher compared to other participants in the study. Thus, the dependence of the secretory function of the pituitary-thyroid link of endocrine regulation on the nature of service and the degree of professional load is statistically proved. It is concluded that the identified features of the thyroid secretory function in law enforcement officers are an adaptive response to various requirements during the performance of professional duties. It is assumed that with prolonged exposure to stress factors, prolonged hormonal stress, dysfunctions of their regulation are possible, leading to disruption of interhormonal interactions, probable disruption of the adaptation process and maintenance of homeostasis in general.