Occupational burnout in oncologists in Kazakhstan.

BACKGROUND: Although burnout levels in oncologists are likely high, its predictors remain poorly understood. AIMS: This study was aimed to verify the prevalence of occupational burnout in oncology doctors and nurses in the major cancer centre in Kazakhstan and to elucidate its predictors to plan future prevention activities. METHODS: In the leading tertiary-level cancer centre in Kazakhstan, we recruited 256 subjects (67% doctors and 33% nurses, 62% women, median age 37.5 [interquartile range 15] years) and offered them Maslach Burnout Inventory to quantify emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA). Demographics, fatigue, health-related quality of life with SF-8 and lifestyle were tested as predictors of burnout in multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: Number of subjects with high EE was 121 (47%), high DP was 161 (63%) and high PA was 152 (59%). Fatigue, worse mental component score (MCS), being single and not exercising regularly predicted more burnout in EE. Fatigue, worse physical component score (PCS) and worse MCS predicted more burnout in DP. Finally, more burnout in PA was independently associated with fatigue, worse PCS, being married or divorced and having a university or academic degree. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of occupational burnout in oncologists was high, necessitating early burnout prevention programmes, addressing, among other, fatigue reduction and regular exercise.

Neuroendocrine response to a psychosocial stress test is not related to schizotypy but cortisol elevation predicts inflexibility of semantic memory retrieval.

An altered stress response can contribute to the transition from preclinical psychotic symptoms to the clinical manifestation of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The present study was aimed at testing the hypotheses that (i) the autonomic and neuroendocrine responses under psychosocial stress are dysregulated in individuals with high psychosis proneness (schizotypy); (ii) the magnitude of post-stress autonomic activation and cortisol release predicts alterations in semantic memory retrieval. The study was performed in 73 healthy individuals of both sexes with either high or low schizotypal traits preselected out of 609 individuals using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. A psychosocial stress procedure based on public speech was used as a stress model. We found that individuals with high schizotypy engaged in less adaptive emotional stress-coping strategies than low schizotypy individuals. Yet, the neuroendocrine, immune, and sympathetic activation in response to the stress test was not different between the groups. Irrespective of the exposure to the stressor, individuals with high schizotypy were less fluent when retrieving associations from semantic memory. In addition, we demonstrated that acute psychosocial stress reduced the flexibility of semantic memory retrieval. The post-stress mental inflexibility was reliably predicted by the concomitant elevation of cortisol concentrations in saliva. The present study thus brings novel evidence indicating that the acute psychosocial challenge impairs retrieval flexibility in the semantic domain, which may be due to neuroendocrine activation.

Salivary testosterone, testosterone/cortisol ratio and non-verbal behavior in stress.

The relationship between hormone release and non-verbal communication under stress conditions is still not sufficiently explored. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that salivary testosterone concentrations and testosterone/cortisol (T/C) ratios correlate positively with assertive behavior representing a non-aggressive form of dominance during an acute stress situation. As a stress model, a socially evaluated cold pressor test was investigated in healthy men. The non-verbal behavior was analyzed according to the ethological coding system for interviews described by Troisi (1999). Salivary testosterone concentrations did not change throughout the stress test. The T/C ratios decreased significantly over time only in subjects showing high stress perception. The duration of affiliative and the frequency of flight behavior was higher in subjects with high stress perception compared to those with low stress perception. A significant positive correlation between the duration of prosocial behavior and values of T/C ratios was found in the whole sample. The area under the curve values of testosterone positively correlated with the duration of assertive behavior in the group with high stress perception and negatively in the other group. Our findings allow suggesting that the changes in non-verbal behavior during acute psychosocial stress situations may be more pronounced in subjects showing high stress perception. Obtained results motivate further research on a better understanding of the consequences of the lack of sense of full facial expressions, such as wearing face masks, on the balance between hormones and non-verbal behavior under stress conditions.

Testosterone but not cortisol concentrations in hair correlate between mothers and their prepubertal children under real-life stress conditions.

The aim of the present study is to test the hypothesis that there is an association between the neuroendocrine state, reflected by testosterone and cortisol concentrations in hair, of the mother and her child under difficult real-life stress conditions (COVID-19 pandemic). The research sample consisted of 45 healthy mothers and their prepubertal children (7 - 11 years) of both sexes. The hair samples of mother-child dyads were collected twice to obtain cumulative stress hormone concentrations from April till the end of June and July till the end of September 2020. Thus, 90 mother-child pairs were analyzed. The results showed that both cortisol and testosterone concentrations were significantly higher in the hair of mothers compared to those in their children. The results of cortisol concentrations in hair do not support the hypothesis stated above. In line with our hypothesis are the results of hair testosterone measurements showing a positive correlation between testosterone concentrations in mothers and their children. With respect to the known relationship of testosterone with aggressive behavior, an important finding is that above-mentioned correlation was particularly strong in women with intense subjective feelings of anger in the investigated three months period. Women with strongly prevalent subjective feelings of sadness failed to show a significant correlation between hair cortisol concentrations in mothers and their children, in spite of the known relationship of cortisol to depressive mood. It may be suggested that chronic testosterone secretion reflects the association between the neuroendocrine function of the mother and her child under real-life stress conditions.

[Use of antioxidants and trimetazidine in preparation of patients with ischemic heart disease for coronary angiography]. / Ispol'zovanie antioksidantov i trimetazidina pri podgotovke bol'nykh ishemicheskoi bolezn'iu serdtsa k koronaroangiografii.

Lipid peroxidation, cell stability, lipid spectrum, conjunctival microcirculation, levels of ceruloplasmin and myoglobin were studied in 107 males with ischemic heart disease before and after coronaroangiography by M. Judkins (CAG). It was found that CAG provokes oxidative stress, promotes membranodestructive processes, dyslipidemia and circulation disorders in the bulbar conjunctive. Preventive (3 days before CAG) administration of alpha-tocopherol or emoxipin proved cardioprotective. The highest cytoprotective effect was produced by trimetasidine given 10 days before the procedure.

[Indications for hypoxitherapy]. / O pokazaniiakh k gipoksiterapii.

Hypoxytherapy is the non-medicinal therapeutic method using gaseous hypoxic mixture (GHM) with decreased oxygen contents. The method is based on the activation of body protective mechanisms, phagocytosis stimulation, microcirculation improvement, sedative effect. GHM therapy is indicated in neurosis, CHD, hypertension, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, to prevent from side effect of ionizing radiation, to increase the resistance during complex therapy of oncologic patients. The method is contraindicated in acute diseases, decompensation of chronic diseases. The authors noted that it is reasonable to use GHM low doses in rehabilitation period after acute pneumonia and in geriatrics. Quite satisfactory effect was obtained in therapy of lower extremity atherosclerosis. For the first time the fact of concrement passage under GHM influence was registered and hypoxytherapy was included into the complex therapy of urolithiasis.

Triplet excitation transfer through the walls of hemicarcerands: dependence of the electronic coupling on the size of the molecular cage.

Triplet excitation transfer from biacetyl trapped inside three hemicarcerands of different size (1, 2, and 3) to acceptors in the surrounding medium was investigated. The largest hemiracerand 1 employs four butyl linkers and the intermediate hemicarcerand 2 four o-xylyl linkers. The smallest hemicarcerand 3 contains only three methylene linkers. Both neat liquid triplet acceptors and acceptors dispersed in solvents were used. The primary objective of this work was to determine the dependence of the energy transfer rate on the size and the electronic structure of the molecular cages. There is a pronounced, more than 10-fold, increase of triplet energy transfer rates with decreasing size of the cage. The corresponding electronic coupling, /V/, increases approximately by a factor of approximately 3.5 from the largest hemicarceplex 1 to the smallest hemicarceplex 3. This increase of the electronic interaction is similar to that observed in covalently bound systems when the distance between the triplet donor and the acceptor is reduced by one carbon-carbon sigma-bond. The electronic structure of the hemicarcerand appears to be of secondary importance, at least when T(1) states of the donor and the acceptor are far from a resonance with the T(1) state of the cage. A very good agreement between the results obtained in neat acceptors and in solution was found, indicating that the association between the acceptors and the molecular cages is negligible, if at all present. An unexpectedly large interaction between the guest and the polarizable walls of the hemicarcerands manifested by emission red-shifts was observed in all cases. This suggests that the entrapment within the molecular cage gives rise to an environment considerably different from that of a single molecule in the gas phase. An interesting correlation between the magnitude of the phosphorescence spectral shift, Deltanu(0-0), and the guest-to-external acceptor electronic coupling, /V/, was found.