A saliva sample provides information about burnout risks

Burn-out risk estimated by analysis of saliva sample

More and more people feel burned out due to the increasing workload and stress in the job. The overburdening often results in a fatigue syndrome. Researchers have now shown that the risk of burnout can be determined by a simple saliva test.

Constant stress and long hours

For a large proportion of Germans, the workload in the job has increased significantly. Some workers effortlessly put stress and overtime away. Others, however, are constantly struggling with fatigue and do not even rest on vacation or on weekends and feel burned out all the time. They suffer from a burnout. A binding definition for this fatigue syndrome does not yet exist. However, there are often certain signs of burnout, such as depression, difficulty concentrating, chronic fatigue or a lot of inner restlessness. Researchers have now shown that burn-out can also be detected by a simple saliva sample.

More and more people are suffering from increasing work pressure. Researchers have now shown that one can determine the risk of burnout from a simple saliva sample. (Image: REDPIXEL / fotolia.com)

Determine burn-out using a simple saliva sample

According to calculations by the World Health Organization (WHO), "depression" occupies first place in the global "disease burden".

According to the experts, three mental illnesses will be among the top 5 by 2030: depression, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are related to alcohol addiction.

Emotional suffering such as burn-out is also on the rise.

Researchers from the Medical University (MedUni) Vienna and the Health and Care Center of the KFA (Health Care Center of the City of Vienna) have now been able to show that burnout can be determined by a simple saliva sample.

The hormone cortisol serves as a marker for this.

Cortisol is mainly released in the morning

As explained on the MedUni website, cortisol is itself an anti-stress hormone that activates degrading metabolic processes and thus provides the human body with high-energy compounds.

Its damaging effect on the immune system is also used to suppress excessive reactions and inhibit inflammation.

The hormone is released during the morning, especially in the morning, and boosts the circulation, so to speak.

In healthy people, the cortisol level then decreases during the day - until practically no cortisol is measurable in the evening.

The situation is different for people who suffer from prolonged stress: The body keeps the cortisol level much longer in the measurable range to cope with the resulting stress - the stress is then "chronic", high cortisol levels without normal daily rhythm.

High work-related stress demonstrated

The three study leaders Helmuth Haslacher and Alexander Pilger from the Clinical Department for Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics (KILM) of the MedUni Vienna and Robert Winker from the stress outpatient department of the Health and Care Center of the KFA were able to show that only one saliva sample was taken Can be won at noon or in the evening, can detect the increased cortisol levels and thus can make the risk of burnout measurable.

For this purpose, work-related stress and cortisol levels of burnout patients were compared with those of healthy workers.

"It turned out that those people who used psychological methods to demonstrate a high work-related stress level exhibited noticeably higher cortisol levels at noon and in the evening," explain the experts.

"We also observed that the patients' clinical course and cortisol levels improved during therapy in the stress clinic set up specifically for this purpose by the KFA. This means that we can use this marker for the identification of people with an increased risk of burnout preventively. "

Further studies will follow to evaluate this result and to develop a valid, biochemical test system for everyday clinical practice to unambiguously identify endangered people.

Accuracy of nearly 100 percent

According to the scientists, the saliva samples at noon and in the evening compared to the usual morning sample delivery - three times after waking every fifteen minutes - showed a much better and safer result:

"Our current data suggests that burnout-vulnerable people can be identified by a single saliva sample with an accuracy of approximately 100 percent, and the literature's known multiple salivary release in the morning has given us a much wider range of variation with more sophisticated methods."

Already four hours after the sample delivery, there is now a safe analysis, which also performed better in comparison to the study of stress-related blood parameters.

"With these results, we will intensify our prevention efforts for stress-associated illnesses in cooperation with the stress outpatient department of the KFA Health and Prevention Center," the researchers emphasized.

The results of the scientists were published in the journal "Nature". (Ad)