Rotating night shifts too quickly may cause anxiety and decreased attentional performance, and impact prolactin levels during the subsequent day: a case control study

BMC Psychiatry

Chin Hsu¹  Ching-Kuan Liu³  Chung-Yao Hsu⁴  Yu-Hsuan Wu²  Hsiang-Lan Chen²  Yu-San Chang² 

[1] Department of Physiology, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan;Kaohsiung Municipal Kai-Syuan Psychiatric Hospital, No. 130, Kai-Syuan, 2nd Road, Ling-Ya District, Kaohsiung 802, Taiwan;Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan;Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, No. 100, Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan

关键词: Shift work;    Circadian;    Sleep-related hormone;    Night shift;    Nurse;    Cognitive function;    Anxiety;   

Others  :  1123422
DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-014-0218-7

 received in 2014-04-06, accepted in 2014-07-22,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

We investigated circadian changes and effects on mood, sleep-related hormones and cognitive performance when nurses worked consecutive night shifts in a rapidly rotating shift system. Daytime cognitive function, sleep propensity and sleep-related hormones (growth hormone, cortisol, prolactin, thyrotropin) were compared after participants worked two and four consecutive night shifts.

Methods

Twenty-three off-duty nurses, 20 nurses working two consecutive night shifts and 16 nurses working four consecutive night shifts were enrolled. All participants completed the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Stanford Sleepiness Scale, visual attention tasks (VAT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and modified Multiple Sleep Latency Test. Hormone levels were also measured four times throughout the day, at 2-h intervals.

Results

During the day, the participants in the night shift groups were less able to maintain wakefulness, had poor performance on VAT, and higher thyrotropin levels than did those in the off-duty group. Participants who worked two night shifts were better able to maintain wakefulness, had higher anxiety scale scores, poorer initial performance and lack of learning effect on VAT, and higher prolactin levels compared with those who worked four night shifts. There were no differences in cortisol levels between the two- and four- shift groups.

Conclusions

Rotating night shifts too quickly may cause anxiety and decreased attentional performance, and may impact daytime prolactin levels after night shifts. It is possible that the two-shift group had a higher cortisol level than did the four-shift group, which would be consistent with the group’s higher state anxiety scores. The negative findings may be due to the small sample size. Further studies on the effects of consecutive night shifts on mood and cortisol levels during the daytime after sleep restriction would be valuable.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Chang et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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