The Invisible Scars of Burnout

The Role of Cortisol

In the bustling life of Marianne, fatigue began to pile up. The demands of her job, worries about her family, and the constant pressures of modern living had taken their toll. She felt drained, emotionally worn down, and mentally detached. Marianne was experiencing burnout.

Shirra Mocho and her team were curious: what role do our hormones play in burnout? Specifically, how does our cortisol – the ‘stress hormone’ – change in people with burnout?

The Research
Sixteen South African women, including Marianne, with burnout were closely monitored. They were given a stress management intervention while their pituitary-adrenal hormones were measured, especially the excretion of free cortisol in urine. They were compared to a control group without treatment.

What They Found
The results were striking. The urinary free cortisol excretion in the patients was significantly lower compared to the controls, both at the start and after 4 months of the study. Despite clinical and psychological improvements from stress management, this reduction persisted.

The Implication
This finding suggests that in burnout, there’s a state of “functional hypocortisolism”. What does this mean? Even if individuals with burnout start feeling better post-therapy, their body might still show signs of stress at the hormonal level.

Marianne’s story and the findings of this study remind us that burnout can leave deep, sometimes invisible, marks on our body. And even as we feel better, our body might still need to play catch-up.

Interested in the full scientific report? Check out the original article.