Associating Emergency Medical Services personnel's workload, trauma exposure, and health with the cortisol, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolamine concentrations in their hair.

ABSTRACT: In their line of duty, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel are exposed to chronically stressful working conditions and recurrent traumatic events, which increase their risk for detrimental health outcomes. Here, we investigated whether this risk is due to altered regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the endocannabinoid system. Therefore, 1 cm hair strands were collected from a cohort of 72 German EMS personnel in order to measure concentrations of cortisol, endocannabinoids [i.e., anandamide (AEA), 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG)], and N-acylethanolamines [i.e., stearoylethanolamide (SEA), oleoylethanolamide (OEA), and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)]. Rank correlation analyses were conducted to test associations of cortisol, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolam

SUBMITTER: Behnke A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7772331 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature