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Abstract
The relationship between psychosocial stress at work and mental health outcome is well-known. Brain-imaging studies hypothesize morphological brain modifications connected to work-related stress. To our knowledge this is the first study describing the link between work characteristics and brain imaging in a sample of work-related psychiatric patients assessed according to standardized clinical and diagnostic criteria. The aims of the study are: (1) to evaluate hippocampal and whole brain volumes in work-related psychiatric disturbances; (2) to verify the relationship between brain changes and the anxious and/or depressive symptoms; (3) to observe the relationship between the brain changes and the degree of the bullying at workplace. The hippocampus and whole brain volumes of 23 patients with work-related adjustment-disorders were compared with 15 controls by means of MRI. MR images highlight a smaller hippocampal volume in patients compared with controls. Significant reduction in the patients’ gray matter was found in three brain areas: right inferior temporal gyrus, left cuneus, left inferior occipital gyrus. The reduction of the hippocampi volumes was related to work distress and, above all, to bullying at workplace. The results confirm that the morphological brain abnormalities could be involved in work-related psychiatric disturbances.
Highlights
The relationship between work stress and psychiatric disturbances is a well known datum [1,2]
The researches focused on the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function have produced inconclusive results [9], some findings suggest that workplace-bullied individuals have a reduced tonic hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA) activity [10,11] and that the chronic development of the work-related distress leads to hypocortisolism to individuals living under other chronic stress conditions and to patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or with stress-related bodily disorders [12]
This report is, as far as we know, the first morphological study carried out in subjects suffering of working stress-related psychopathologies objectively evaluated by means standardized clinical and diagnostic criteria and by means of rating scales to measure the psychopathological dimensions of the psychiatric disorders
Summary
The relationship between work stress and psychiatric disturbances is a well known datum [1,2]. The Kungsholmen Project [7] has observed, in a population-based follow up study, that the high job stress experiences were related to higher risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease in late life (independent of other known risk factors). The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms involved are still unclear About this topic, the researches focused on the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function have produced inconclusive results [9], some findings suggest that workplace-bullied individuals have a reduced tonic hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA) activity [10,11] and that the chronic development of the work-related distress leads to hypocortisolism to individuals living under other chronic stress conditions and to patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or with stress-related bodily disorders [12]
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