ArticlePloS one2013
Long-term occupational stress is associated with regional reductions in brain tissue volumes.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of burnout among healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa.BMC public health · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Nonspecific Effect of Stress on Brain Gray Matter Volume in Drug-naive Female Patients with First Depressive Episode.Chinese medical journal · 2016Trial
- Identification of comprehensive genetic factors, pathways, and shared genetic architecture of putamen volume in adolescent cohort.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- White matter fibers mediate the relationship between workload, resource use, and burnout: a new attempt to apply the conservation of resources theory to neuroscience.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy identifies neural biomarkers of burnout in active-duty Police officers.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic and Clinical Predictors of Chronic Disease Outcomes in a Colombian Population: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 2495 Patients.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Assessing health, wellbeing, and working life impacts of a 4-day week: a multimodal protocol.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Perceived stress mediates the association between orbitofrontal cortex grey matter volume and depressive symptoms in older women.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Burnout and the Brain-A Mechanistic Review of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The impact of affective and cognitive empathy on stress in medical students.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2025Article
- Factors associated with symptom severity in stress-induced exhaustion disorder: cohort characterization and cross-sectional correlations.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Functional connectivity in burnout syndrome: a resting-state EEG study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Emotion regulation shows an age- and sex-specific moderating effect on the relationship between chronic stress and cognitive performance.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Association between military service and Alzheimer's disease neuropathology at autopsy.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Blast-Induced Neurotrauma Results in Spatially Distinct Gray Matter Alteration Alongside Hormonal Alteration: A Preliminary Investigation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Lateral prefrontal cortex thickness is associated with stress but not cognitive fatigue in exhaustion disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Altered neural processes underlying executive function in occupational burnout-Basis for a novel EEG biomarker.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Article
- Preventing burnout and substance use disorder among healthcare professionals through breathing exercises, emotion identification, and writing activities.Journal of interprofessional education & practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There are increasing reports of cognitive and psychological declines related to occupational stress in subjects without psychiatric premorbidity or major life trauma. The underlying neurobiology is unknown, and many question the notion that the described disabilities represent a medical condition. Using PET we recently found that persons suffering from chronic occupational stress had limbic reductions in the 5-HT1A receptor binding potential. Here we examine whether chronic work-related stress is also associated with changes in brain structure. We performed MRI-based voxel-based morphometry and structural volumetry in stressed subjects and unstressed controls focusing on gray (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes, and the volumes of hippocampus, caudate, and putamen - structures known to be susceptible to neurotoxic changes. Stressed subjects exhibited significant reductions in the GM volumes of the anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, their caudate and putamen volumes were reduced, and the volumes correlated inversely to the degree of perceived stress. Our results add to previous data on chronic psychosocial stress, and indicate a morphological involvement of the frontostriatal circuits. The present findings of morphological changes in these regions confirm our previous conclusion that symptoms from occupational stress merit careful investigations and targeted treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.