Low Levels of Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate in Younger Burnout Patients
نویسندگان
چکیده
OBJECTIVE Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-s) is an anabolic protective hormone of importance for maintenance of health. DHEA-s levels peak in young adults and decline thereafter with age. DHEA-s has previously been shown to be lower in individuals reporting prolonged stress. This study investigates DHEA-s levels in patients with clinical burnout, a disorder caused by long-term psychosocial stress. METHODS 122 patients (51% men) and 47 controls (51% men) in the age 25-54 years were included in the study. DHEA-s levels were compared between patients and controls in the whole sample and within each of the three 10-year-interval age groups. RESULTS In the youngest age group (25-34 years), DHEA-s levels were on average 25% lower in the patients (p = 0.006). The differences in DHEA-s levels between patients and controls were more pronounced among female than male participants (on average 32% and 13% lower, respectively). There were no differences in DHEA-s levels between patients and controls in the age group 35-44 years (p = 0.927) or 45-54 years (p = 0.897) or when analyzing all age groups together (p = 0.187). CONCLUSION The study indicates that levels of the health promoting "youth" hormone DHEA-s are low in younger burnout patients. The fact that younger adults have much higher DHEA-s levels and more pronounced inter-subject variability in DHEA-s levels than older individuals might explain why burnout status differentiates patients from controls only among the youngest patients included in this study.
منابع مشابه
Androgen levels in reproductive age of female patients with depression in psychological clinics in Khorram Abad
Background: Women suffer more often from depression than men. Social research suggests that high androgen levels cause aggressive behavior in men and women, and consequently cause depression. The purpose of this study was to determine serum levels of androgens, especially testosterone, in patients with depression. Material and methods: In this case-controlled study, we measured serum testoste...
متن کاملBlood pressure, body fat, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate variation in adolescence.
Several significant interrelations among variation in blood pressure, body fat, and adrenal androgen levels, as assessed by serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate concentrations, were found in black male and female adolescents, aged 12 to 16 years. In girls, high levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate were associated with significantly higher levels of blood pressure (alpha = 0.05), even after ...
متن کاملCirculating androgen levels and self-reported sexual function in women.
CONTEXT It has been proposed that low sexual desire and sexual dysfunction are associated with low blood testosterone levels in women. However, evidence to support this is lacking. OBJECTIVE To determine whether women with low self-reported sexual desire and sexual satisfaction are more likely to have low serum androgen levels than women without self-reported low sexual desire and sexual sati...
متن کاملHuman resistance to Plasmodium falciparum increases during puberty and is predicted by dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels.
Immunity to Plasmodium falciparum develops slowly in areas of endemicity, and this is often ascribed to poorly immunogenic or highly variant parasite antigens. However, among populations newly exposed to malaria, adults acquire immunity more rapidly than children. We examined the relationship between pubertal development and resistance to P. falciparum. During two transmission seasons in wester...
متن کامل