What is the difference between « burnout » and depression?
Since the 90s, studies conducted at the Centre for Studies on Human
Stress have demonstrated that cortisol has some interesting properties.
This hormone is secreted by the body to generate changes that affect
other hormones and it is particularly rapid at reaching the brain.
Previously, researchers had never thought that a hormone could reach the
brain.
As a steroid that easily passed through the blood-brain barrier,
cortisol assesses the brain in about eight minutes. It begins by
affecting the hippocampus implicated in learning and memory.
This allows us to demonstrate that when a person is exposed to
cortisol over long periods, this hormone ends up modifying the capacity
of the individual to detect and negotiate with novelty,
unpredictability, and to have a sense of control.
After fifteen years of study, researchers have successfully found
important patho-physiological differences between people who suffer from
« burnout » and those who suffer from depression : individuals
suffering from « burnout » do not produce enough cortisol, as if the
body decided to go on strike. As a reversal, those who suffer from
depression produce too much of it.
For specialists, this hormone is actually becoming a « biomarker »
capable of detecting very early on people at high risk of developing
« burnout » when the rate is decreased, while in a depression, the rate
is increased. This « biomarker » could offer a differential diagnosis
between « burnout » and depression and could potentially help weed out
genuine cases. Here, it is important to note that if specialists are
able to detect abuses, this would help people who truly suffer, since,
in the long-run, it is them who pay too high a price.
The importance of precise cortisol detection
To determine its importance, researchers have studied a determinant
number of individuals over a four-year period. The results they found
demonstrated that those who produced too much cortisol have a
hippocampus atrophied at 14%. In those who are exposed to this hormone
for too long, we have also observed memory deficits.
Cortisol and presenteeism
Stress affects learning, memory, and our capacity to perform. Some
attempts at the laboratory have demonstrated a cause and effect relation
between cortisol and presenteeism. For example, the brain of a stressed
person while they are participating in a clinical study in relation to
activation of their brain is inhibited by stress. An inhibited brain
evidently becomes unproductive.
Conclusion : How to treat detected cases?
There are three treatment possibilities : pharmacological drugs, social politics, and the power of knowledge.
a- Phamacological drugs
At the Centre for Studies on Human Stress, researchers and
specialists are not in favour of using drugs. It is too easy to control
this hormone. However, we do not believe that preventing stress should
involve medications. Stress is generated by interpretations people make
of their environment. Helping people to modify their perception of this
environment is much more promising to halt the stress epidemic than is
the administration of pharmacological drugs.
b- Social politics
Scientific researchers can attempt to influence social politics by
giving convincing arguments. However, the scientific community evidently
favors the third voice, the power of knowledge.
c- The power of knowledge
A situation is stressful if it is interpreted as being so. If
researchers help a person to recognize what is stress, this will
undoubtedly have a positive effect. In fact, in teaching people to
detect and to cope with stress, we think we can reduce this problem in
individuals. Studies have demonstrated that if a person stays home long
enough because they lack control, they will end up producing enough
cortisol with long-term effects.
In order to modify the manner in which a person processes
information, it must diminish their capacity to secrete too much
cortisol. We have calculated that if such a project is efficient in only
10% of people suffering from the effects of stress on mental health, a
net economy of one billion dollars per year would be generated.