Higher overcommitment to work is associated with lower norepinephrine secretion before and after acute psychosocial stress in men

Abstract

Higher overcommitment to work is associated with lower norepinephrine secretion before and after acute psychosocial stress in men Higher overcommitment to work is associated with lower norepinephrine secretion before and after acute psychosocial stress in men Abstract BACKGROUND: Overcommitment (OC) is a pattern of excessive striving. In reaction to work stress, OC has been associated with higher sympathetic nervous system activation and cortisol release, but data on neuroendocrine reactivity to standardized stressors are scarce. We investigated whether OC is associated with differential levels of the stress hormones norepinephrine and cortisol in response to acute psychosocial stress.METHODS: Fifty-eight medication-free non-smoking men aged between 20 and 65 years (mean+/-S.E.M.: 36.3+/-1.8) underwent an acute standardized psychosocial stress task combining public speaking and mental arithmetic in front of an audience. We assessed OC as well as a variety of psychological control variables including vital exhaustion, perfectionism, chronic stress, and cognitive stress appraisal. Moreover, we measured plasma norepinephrine as well as salivary cortisol before and after stress and several times up to 60 min thereafter.RESULTS: Higher OC was associated with lower baseline norepinephrine levels (r = -0.37, p < 0.01). General linear models controlling for age, BMI, and mean arterial blood pressure revealed that higher overcommitment was associated with lower norepinephrine and cortisol levels before and after stress (p's < 0.02) as well as with lower norepinephrine stress reactivity (p = 0.02). Additional controlling for the potential psychological confounders vital exhaustion, perfectionism, chronic stress, and depression confirmed lower norepinephrine levels before and after stress (p < 0.01) as well lower norepinephrine stress reactivity (p = 0.02) with increasing OC. Higher OC independently explained 13% of the total norepinephrine stress response (beta = -0.46, p < 0.01, R(2) change = 0.13).CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest blunted increases in norepinephrine following stress with increasing OC potentially mirroring blunted stress reactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. ABSTRACTBackground: Overcommitment is a pattern of excessive striving. In reaction to work stress, overcommitment (OC) has been associated with higher sympathetic nervous system activation and cortisol release, but data on neuroendocrine reactivity to standardized stressors are scarce. We investigated whether overcommitment is associated with differential levels of the stress hormones norepinephrine and cortisol in response to acute psychosocial stress.Methods: 58 medication-free non-smoking men aged between 20 and 65 years (mean±SEM: 36.3±1.8) underwent an acute standardized psychosocial stress task combining public speaking and mental arithmetic in front of an audience. We assessed overcommitment as well as a variety of psychological control variables including vital exhaustion, perfectionism, chronic stress, and cognitive stress appraisa...

Occupational role stress is associated with higher cortisol reactivity to acute stress.

“…For both systems, there is so much empirical support for both hyper-and hypo-reactivity (Chida & Hamer, 2008;Hamer, et al, 2006;Siegrist, et al, 1997;Wirtz, et al, 2008) that it seems inevitable to conclude that moderators must be present. One such moderator is time, as many authors agree that both systems are likely to show hyporeactivity when stress has accumulated to such an extent that the systems get exhausted (Siegrist, et al, 1997).…”

“…However, long-lasting chronic stress exposure has also been hypothesized to exhaust physiological stress reactivity capacity, which in turn may result in lowered physiological stress reactivity (Appels, 1997;McEwen, 1998a;Wirtz, Siegrist, Rimmele, & Ehlert, 2008). Indeed, both elevated as well as reduced responsivity to acute stress have been found for both SNS and HPA parameters (Chida & Hamer, 2008).…”

“…The current project is part of a larger series of studies investigating psychological determinants of physiological stress reactivity (Gaab, Rohleder, Nater, & Ehlert, 2005;Wirtz, Elsenbruch, et al, 2007;Wirtz, Kanel, et al, 2007;Wirtz, Redwine, Ehlert, & von Kanel, 2009;Wirtz, et al, 2008). We therefore assessed psychological control variables (i.e.…”

“…We therefore assessed psychological control variables (i.e. overcommitment, perfectionism, and cognitive stress appraisal) that we previously found to independently relate to stress reactivity measures of the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous systems (Gaab, et al, 2005;Wirtz, Elsenbruch, et al, 2007;Wirtz, et al, 2008)_ENREF_6_ENREF_7. We additionally controlled for time pressure at work; time pressure reflects the workload construct, which is both a typical work-related stressor and part of the role stress concept (Beehr & Glazer, 2005), and thus associated with work-related uncertainty scores (R. Karasek & Theorell, 1990;Semmer, et al, 1995).…”

“…overcommitment (Wirtz, et al, 2008) and perfectionism (Wirtz, Elsenbruch, et al, 2007), as well as cognitive stress appraisal (Gaab, et al, 2005). Furthermore, we additionally controlled for perceived time pressure at work to rule out a confounding influence of this typical work-related stressor on potential associations between work-related uncertainty and physiological stress reactivity.…”