Burn-out leaves measurable brain changes

UMEA, Sweden, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Exhaustion syndrome -- also called burn-out -- leaves measurable changes to the brain, a Swedish researcher says.

Agneta Sandstrom of Umea University in Sweden says measurable changes in the brain include reduced activity in the frontal lobes and altered regulation of the stress hormone cortisol.

Sandstrom's dissertation looked at whether it is possible to use neuropsychological tests -- such as the performance of working memory tests while functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals the brain's activity patterns -- to confirm and describe the cognitive problems patients who suffer from exhaustion syndrome report.

The study found exhaustion syndrome patients proved to have a different activity pattern in the brain while performing a language test of their working memory.

Those with exhaustion syndrome also activate parts of the frontal lobe less than healthy subjects and less than a group of patients who had recently developed depression, Sandstrom says.

Individuals with exhaustion syndrome demonstrate impaired memory and attention capacity as well as reduced brain activity in parts of the frontal lobes, Sandstrom says.