The influence of military exercises on mental health and serum copeptin of the soldiers in field army / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the characteristics of the mental health and the change of serum copeptin,cortisol and aldosterone levels of the soldiers in field army under military exercises stress.Methods A total of 294 soldiers were evaluated with the psychological stress self evaluation test (PSET) before the exercises and the soldiers whose PSET score were T ＜ 70 had to accept the survey with the general information questionnaire before the exercises, and another two questionnaires including PSET and Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) after the exercises, the higher stress group and lower stress group were defined according to the PSET score, T≥70 and T ＜ 70 respectively.Meanwhile, we draw the venous blood of them in order to detect the serum concentration of copeptin,cortisol and aldosterone before and after the military exercise.Results ( 1 ) After the survey of PSET before the exercises,263 soldiers were determined to be the final research objects.According to the score of PSET after the exercises, 104 soldiers(39.5% ) were considered as the higher stress group,and the symptoms mainly included anxiety,hostility and poor sleep and appetite.(2) Compared with the lower stress group,the higher stress group were younger(21.51 ± 3.13 vs 24.09 ± 4.16, P ＜ 0.01 ), higher at the proportion of soldiers ( 68.27% vs 54.09%, P＜0.01 ) and lower at the proportion of soldiers who have experiences of military exercises(37.50% vs 57.23%, P＜0.01 ).(3) Compared with the lower stress group,the higher stress group had higher score in EPQN ( 10.43 ± 1.78 vs 8.77 ± 1.67, P ＜ 0.01 ).(4) The serum levels of copeptin ( P ＜ 0.01 ), cortisol ( P ＜ 0.01 )and aldosterone( P＜0.01 ) have increased after the military exercise.Compared with the lower stress group, the higher stress group have higher serum copeptin level ( 11.36 ± 2.21 vs 9.43 ± 2.34, P ＜ 0.01 ) after the exercises.( 5 ) The relationship between PSET score and the copeptin level after exercise can be expressed as a formula PSET score = 27.909 + 3.669X ( X copeptin level after exercise), and 11.472 pmol/L was considered as the threshold value.Conclusion As a strong stress agent, military exercises may cause obvious physiological changes and has notable effect on related hormones.The change of serum copeptin level can be used as a sensitive indicator to determine the degree of stress.