Burnout Is Associated with Reduced Parasympathetic Activity and Reduced HPA Axis Responsiveness, Predominantly in Males

Table 2

Test results comparing prestressor resting values (ANOVA), mean values during the psychosocial stress procedure, and reactivity and recovery (ANOVA for repeated measures) between the patient and healthy group.

	Resting^a (group)			Mean during session^a (group)			Reactivity and recovery^a (group phase)
	df’s			df’s			df’s
SBP
M	1,46	6.57	0.014	1,46	4.87	0.032	3.3, 153.6	3.11	0.024
F	1,41	0.18	0.676	1,41	0.23	0.636	3.7, 151.4	0.68	0.596
DBP	1,90	0.44	0.507	1,90	1.13	0.291	3.5, 310.6	2.08	0.094
HR	1,90	0.97	0.328	1,90	1.39	0.242	3.0, 268.8	0.44	0.723
CO	1,89	1.71	0.195	1,89	3.81	0.054	3.7, 327.9	0.61	0.644
TPR	1,89	0.85	0.360	1,89	1.31	0.256	3.4, 298.2	1.16	0.327
EHRV	1,89	4.60	0.035	1,89	5.83	0.018	3.7, 332.8	0.50	0.726
AA
M	1,41	7.14	0.011	1,41	6.60	0.014	2.0, 83.0	0.21	0.813
F	1,39	0.23	0.634	1,39	<0.01	0.998	2.5, 98.8	2.47	0.077
CORT
M	1,45	1.38	0.246	1,45	<0.01	0.997	2.0, 89.5	3.32	0.041
F	1,34	2.92	0.097	1,34	1.22	0.278	2.1, 72.5	2.61	0.077

Note: Group: mean difference between the patient and the healthy group; group phase: interaction effect of group phase of the psychosocial stress procedure; SBP: systolic blood pressure; DBP: diastolic blood pressure; HR: heart rate; CO: cardiac output; TPR: total peripheral resistance; EHRV: estimated heart rate variability; AA: alpha-amylase; CORT: cortisol; M: males; F: females. ^aAll analyses were adjusted for the covariates age, BMI, and gender. Cortisol analyses for females were also adjusted for menstrual phase, oral contraceptive use, and menopausal status. Statistically significant differences are presented in bold and are also indicated in Figures 3 and 4, using superscripts.