Globe and Mail - Saliva may hold key to predicting burnout
Go ahead: Spit if you feel frustrated about your job. What your saliva reveals could alert doctors to whether you鈥檙e at risk of burnout at work, according to new Canadian research.
And testing saliva could also help people with symptoms of burnout avoid being put on medication that might actually make the condition worse, said Robert-Paul Juster, a doctoral student at 69热视频 in Montreal who helped design the research.
A clue that someone is suffering burnout is lowered levels of cortisol, often referred to as the 鈥渟tress hormone鈥� because it is secreted when we feel anxious or agitated. But if we are under continual stress, our bodies can shut down production of the hormone rather than try to keep up with the constant demand.
(The study鈥檚 supervisor was Sonia Lupien, of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress of Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital in Montreal, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al.)