Neurobiological effects of work related stress

Stress is one of the greatest health burdens of our society and often implies impairments in cognitive and emotional functions of the brain. Here, we hypothesize that changes in the brain’s dopamine (DA)-based mesocorticolimbic projections in patients with work-related stress (adjustment disorder) will manifest themselves as altered glucose metabolism in relation to neural activity, and as altered DA radiotracer binding potentials at the relevant receptors. In addition, we investigate the distribution of the genotype variance between stress patients and healthy controls. Furthermore we conduct a neuropsychiatric interview and in some participants an intelligence assessment on symptomatic level.

This project is designed to generate entirely new and objective evidence of stress-induced cerebral illness, and to provide a basis for in-depth research and for a more rational management of this and other mental disorders.

Methods
Subjects and healthy controls undergo a Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry and Screen for Cognitive Impairment in Psychiatry (SCIP) test, in relation to positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging and functional MRi (PET/MRI/fMRi).  The study use the tracers; 18F-FDG to measure glucose metabolism as a marker of neural activity and 11C-raclopride to explore binding potentials in the striatum and possibly impaired mesocortical dopaminergic transmission in the cortex. Genotype detection of COMT-gene variations, also known as the Warrior/Worrier- gene believed to be related to stress resilience. 

Funding: University of Southern Denmark, University Hospital Odense and Helsefonden

ClinicalTrials : NCT03334045