Mental Fatigue

Given the important role of the brain in regulating endurance performance, this comparative study sought to determine whether professional road cyclists have superior inhibitory control and resistance to mental fatigue compared to recreational road cyclists. After preliminary testing and familiarization, eleven professional and nine recreational road cyclists visited the lab on two occasions to complete a modified incongruent colour-word Stroop task (a cognitive task requiring inhibitory control) for 30 min (mental exertion condition), or an easy cognitive task for 10 min (control condition) in a randomized, counterbalanced cross-over order. After each cognitive task, participants completed a 20-min time trial on a cycle ergometer. During the time trial, heart rate, blood lactate concentration, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded. The professional cyclists completed more correct responses during the Stroop task than the recreational cyclists (705±68 vs 576±74, p = 0...

The dimensionality of Maslach's (1982) 3 aspects of job burnout--emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment--was examined among a sample of supervisors and managers in the human services. A series of confirmatory factor analyses supported the 3-factor model, with the first 2 aspects highly correlated. The 3 aspects were found to be differentially related to other variables reflecting aspects of strain, stress coping, and self-efficacy in predictable and meaningful ways. Implications for better understanding the burnout process are discussed.

The arguments in favour of introducing shift work clearly depend on productivity and safety being maintained at an acceptable level. However, the evidence reviewed in this paper clearly indicates that both productivity and safety may be compromised at night. More specifically, safety declines over successive night shifts, with increasing hours on duty and between successive rest breaks. The only known

Although enormously beneficial, self-regulation often proves to be enormously difficult.  The typical explanation for such difficulty has been that people's capacity for self-regulation is limited and depletes with use, hindering sustained regulation.  However, recent findings challenge this capacity view, suggesting instead that people's shifting experiences with and motivations for continued self-regulation better explain why regulation so frequently fails.  This chapter integrates such findings, and several emerging theoretical perspectives developed to explain them, into an integrated model of self-regulation based on processes of motivated effort-allocation.  The model incorporates three main components: (a) assessments of motives to engage in self-regulation; (b) allocations of effort and attention based on these motives; and (c) monitoring of the consequences of this allocation, which then triggers a reassessment of motives and begins the cycle anew.  After presenting the details of the model, the chapter reviews its implications for capacity views of self-regulation and future research on improving regulation.

To clarify the associations between psychosocial work stressors and mental ill health, a meta-analysis of psychosocial work stressors and common mental disorders was undertaken using longitudinal studies identified through a systematic literature review. The review used a standardized search strategy and strict inclusion and quality criteria in seven databases in 1994-2005. Papers were identified from 24,939 citations covering social determinants of health, 50 relevant papers were identified, 38 fulfilled inclusion criteria, and 11 were suitable for a meta-analysis. The Comprehensive Meta-analysis Programme was used for decision authority, decision latitude, psychological demands, and work social support, components of the job-strain and iso-strain models, and the combination of effort and reward that makes up the effort-reward imbalance model and job insecurity. Cochran's Q statistic assessed the heterogeneity of the results, and the I2 statistic determined any inconsistency between studies. Job strain, low decision latitude, low social support, high psychological demands, effort-reward imbalance, and high job insecurity predicted common mental disorders despite the heterogeneity for psychological demands and social support among men. The strongest effects were found for job strain and effort-reward imbalance. This meta-analysis provides robust consistent evidence that (combinations of) high demands and low decision latitude and (combinations of) high efforts and low rewards are prospective risk factors for common mental disorders and suggests that the psychosocial work environment is important for mental health. The associations are not merely explained by response bias. The impact of work stressors on common mental disorders differs for women and men.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between perceived and actual sleepiness and performance during a simulated night-shift that included a 30-min night-nap as an on-duty sleepiness countermeasure. Twenty-four healthy young adults (nine males, fifteen females) participated in a repeated measures design comprising two experimental conditions: no night-nap and 30-min night-nap. Both groups were given a

Self-regulation is central to many of the most important individual and societal problems today. We sought to determine whether the relationship between self-regulation and heart rate variability (HRV) could be replicated and extended. We hypothesized that baseline HRV would predict persistence on an anagram task, and that under conditions requiring greater self-control, HRV would increase. Two groups were given the same set of difficult and unsolvable anagrams. To induce self-regulatory fatigue, the suppression group was asked to try to not think of a white bear while the expression group was asked to try to think of a white bear. Baseline HRV predicted persistence on the unsolvable anagram. Both groups demonstrated changes in HRV relative to baseline, although we were unable to replicate findings that HRV was elevated during high self-regulatory effort. We were, however, able to replicate findings that the expression group persisted longer on the anagram task compared to the suppression group but only when accounting for physical activity scores. The present study advances our knowledge of the relationship between HRV and self-regulation, so that we can more successfully treat those with seriously impaired self-control.

Driving of motor vehicles constitutes, undoubtedly, a very complex and demanding task. Moreover, if we regard to the field of professional driving, we will find that driving labor implies different adverse and threatening working conditions that potentially affect not only the driving performance, but also the health and welfare of drivers, passengers and other road users. Some of these adverse operational conditions are long periods of driving, overstimulation, exposition to different stressors and irregular break shifts, that may explain a major predisposition to reporting mental and psychological symptoms of fatigue, stress and a substantial decreasing of driving performance. Briefly, there is a combination of conditions that increases the risk of suffering different health complains, negative occupational outcomes and, even, traffic crashes. The main objective of this study was to describe the associations between fatigue indicators, job stress, health factors and traffic crashes among BRT drivers. Further, this research has also the complimentary purpose of presenting psychometric properties of two scales used to measure general fatigue, and work-related fatigue-or need for recovery-among professional drivers. For this cross-sectional study, it was used a sample of 524 Colombian BRT operators, who answered a questionnaire composed by three sections: in the first, it was scoped a set of demographic and individual indicators; in the second section, fatigue was measured using the Subjective Fatigue Scale of Checklist of Individual Strength (CIS) and the Need for Recovery Scale (NFR). Finally, in the third section work stress was measured using JCQ and ERI questionnaires. Apart of finding good psychometric properties of the two scales used to measure fatigue, significant correlations between both fatigue measures and work stress, daily hours driving and driver's age were found. Also, it was established a set of associations between the level of fatigue of BRT divers with some health complains (i.e. diabetes, high cholesterol and ergonomic disorders), both measures of job stress, and self-perceived risky driving. As conclusion, fatigue constitutes a relevant factor to be taken into account to design interventions aimed to improving working conditions and to promote operators' welfare, regarding its relationship to adverse psychosocial factors at work, such as work stress (under Demand-Control and Effort-Reward Imbalance models) that, according to the evidence, are potential predictors of risky behaviors, traffic accidents and negative health outcomes among professional drivers.

l-Theanine is an amino acid found naturally in tea. Despite the common consumption of l-theanine, predominantly in combination with caffeine in the form of tea, only one study to date has examined the cognitive effects of this substance alone, and none have examined its effects when combined with caffeine. The present randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced crossover study investigated the acute cognitive and mood effects of l-theanine (250 mg), and caffeine (150 mg), in isolation and in combination. Salivary caffeine levels were co-monitored. l-Theanine increased ‘headache’ ratings and decreased correct serial seven subtractions. Caffeine led to faster digit vigilance reaction time, improved Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) accuracy and attenuated increases in self-reported ‘mental fatigue’. In addition to improving RVIP accuracy and ‘mental fatigue’ ratings, the combination also led to faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy. ‘Headache’ and ‘tired’ ratings were reduced and ‘alert’ ratings increased. There was also a significant positive caffeine × l-theanine interaction on delayed word recognition reaction time. These results suggest that beverages containing l-theanine and caffeine may have a different pharmacological profile to those containing caffeine alone.

Fatigue can be defined as a subjective state of an imbalance in the availability of inner resources needed to perform physical or mental activities. The level of fatigue is determined not only by the availability of inner resources but also by the demands of the activities performed. Most conventional fatigue scales require subjects to rate their level of fatigue without specifying the situation. In the present study, we constructed a subjective rating scale, the Situational Fatigue Scale (SFS), with which subjects estimated their level of fatigue in specific activities of daily life. We administered the SFS, along with the Fatigue Assessment Instrument (FAI) to 96 outpatients in a family-medicine clinic and to 62 college students to assess the psychometric properties of the SFS. Principle component analysis revealed two underlying factors: physical fatigue and mental fatigue. SFS scores were significantly correlated with several FAI scores and differentiated patients complaining of fatigue from those who did not. The SFS also showed good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. These results suggest that the SFS could be a useful tool to measure a different dimension of the broad concept of fatigue.

Background: The main cause of the tendency to drug abuse among adolescents and young people
is the inability to control their emotions. Previous studies have revealed that as the two models
of mindfulness-based self-compassion and attachment-based therapy increase self-acceptance
and forgiveness in people, they can be useful for reducing the negative emotions. The aim of
the present study was to compare the effectiveness of the two models of mindfulness-based
self-compassion and attachment-based therapy on the self-criticism and mental fatigue of male
adolescents with addiction potential.
Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study. The research population included all high school
students in Azna County in the academic year 2018-2019. The participants were selected through
cluster sampling. Those with a score above 60 on the Addiction Preparation Scale were randomly
assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, each with 15 participants. The
instruments used to collect the data were the Addiction Preparation Scale (Wade & Butcher, 1992),
the Self-Criticism Questionnaire (Lewis, 1997), and the Psychological Fatigue Questionnaire
(Crepe, 1989). The participants in the experimental groups underwent mindful self-compassion
and attachment-oriented therapy for 8 and 6 sessions, respectively. The data were analyzed
using Multivariate Analysis Of Covariance (MANCOVA) and one-way Analysis Of Variance
(ANOVA) by SPSS software V. 21.
Results: The findings showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups
in terms of self-criticism (P=0.001, F=10.21) and mental fatigue (P=0.001, F=5.74) in the post-test
phase. The results showed that there was no significant difference between mindful self-compassion
treatment and attachment-based therapy in terms of their effects on self-criticism (-0.92±0.71,
P=0.20) and mental fatigue (-0.57±0.45, P=0.19) of the male adolescents vulnerable to addiction.
Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, it can be concluded that mindfulness-based
self-compassion and attachment-based therapy are effective in reducing self-criticism and mental
fatigue of male adolescents with the addiction potential. Accordingly, the models are suggested to
be used by mental health professionals to help adolescents who are potential to addiction.

Background Majority of Nepalese women live in remote rural areas, where health services are not easily accessible. We determined the validity of Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) as a screening tool for identification of women with severe menopausal symptoms and cut-off MRS score for referral. Methods A cross-sectional survey was carried out between February and August, 2008. Trained health workers administered MRS and a questionnaire to 729 women (40 to 65 years) attending health screening camps in Kaski district of Western Development Region of Nepal. Information about demographics, menopausal status, and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), chronic disease, self-perceived general health and reproductive history was also collected. Menopausal status was classified according to the Staging of Reproductive Ageing Workshop (STRAW). We calculated rates of menopausal symptoms, sensitivity, and specificity and likelihood ratios of MRS scores for referral to a gynaecologist. We also carried out multivariate analyses to identify the predictors for referral to a gynaecologist for severe symptoms. Results A total 729 women were interviewed. Mean age at menopause was 49.9 years (SD 5.6). Most frequently reported symptoms were, sleeping problems (574, 78.7%), physical and mental exhaustion (73.5%), hot flushes (508, 69.7%), joint and muscular discomfort (500, 68.6%) and dryness of vagina (449, 61.6%). Postmenopausal women (247, 33.9%) and perimenopausal (215, 29.5%) women together experienced significantly higher prevalence of all symptoms than the premenopausal (267, 36.6%) women. MRS score of ≥16 had highest ratio for (sensitivity + specificity)/2. Women who reported urogenital symptoms [OR 5.29, 95% CI 2.59, 10.78], and self perceived general health as poor [OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.11, 1.53] were more likely to be referred to a gynaecologist for severe menopausal symptoms. While women reporting somatic [OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63, 0.82] and psychological [OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.74, 0.99] symptoms were less likely to be referred. Conclusion MRS may be used as a screening tool at a cut-off score of ≥16 with least misclassification rate. However, its utility may be limited by woman's general health status and occurrence of urogenital symptoms.