Psychophysiological characteristics of women suffering from stress‐related fatigue

Abstract

Stress‐related fatigue has been attributed to excessive sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activation, but findings have been equivocal as to whether the HPA axis or the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are affected in this condition and how. Whether task performance deficits are associated with this condition is also uncertain. The present study investigated possible differences between women with stress‐related fatigue and healthy women in heart rate variability (HRV) and other autonomic and respiratory measures, task performance and in salivary cortisol response to awakening. Thirty‐six women with stress‐related fatigue were compared with 19 female healthy controls matched in age. Four indices of HRV and other autonomic and respiratory measures were recorded during baseline, task performance and relaxation phases of a laboratory session. Saliva cortisol was measured four times during the hour after awakening. The fatigued group showed less HRV in three measures, higher temperature, lower O2 saturation at the surface of the finger, lower end‐tidal pCO2, and greater cortisol response. This group responded faster on the task but with more errors. Women with stress‐related fatigue show signs of hyperarousal on ANS, respiratory and HPA axis measures. The lower HRV may indicate greater cardiovascular risk. Results for task performance confirm subjectively reported deficits. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reported fatigue, difficulty, and cardiovascular response to an auditory mental arithmetic challenge

“…For one, it offers a conceptual framework for integrating and understanding a diverse array of fatigue and fatigue-related findings (e.g., Buysse et al, 2006;Olsson et al, 2010). Fatigue effects on CV response in performance contexts have ranged widely, with some studies yielding positive effects, others yielding negative effects, and still others yielding null effects.…”

A Taxonomy of Fatigue Concepts and Their Relation to Hearing Loss

“…Cortisol is a biologic marker that has been used in the study of fatigue in a wide range of populations including hearing loss (Hicks and Tharpe, 2002), cancer survivors (Bower, Ganz and Aziz, 2005) and stress-related fatigue (Olsson, Roth and Melin, 2010). Cortisol levels are not a direct marker of fatigue; rather these levels are sensitive to an individual’s stress levels and energy expenditure, which are often associated with fatigue.…”

Cynicism as subscale of burnout

“…For example, while chronic stress initially results in hypercortisolemia, it may eventually lead to hypocortisolemia [9] -a fact that can, and have indeed, 3 lead to opposite findings in the search for biological correlates of burnout. At present there is enough evidence to accept deficiencies in HPA axis and ANS to be biological correlates of severe burnout [8,10,11].…”

“…At present there is enough evidence to accept deficiencies in HPA axis and ANS to be biological correlates of severe burnout [8,10,11]. In view of the role of the HPA axis (cortisol) and the ANS in energy availability, coupled to associations of hypocortisolism and ANS insufficiency with fatigue [8,9]), it seems feasible to accept inadequacies in these main stress axes [8,10,11] as correlates of the burnout-associated exhaustion. In addition, due to the loss of glucocorticoid regulation of the immune system, hypocortisolaemia can lead to an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines [12].…”