Diurnal and Reactivity Measures of Cortisol in Response to Intensive Resilience and Tactical Training Among Special Forces Police

Special Forces Police are called to the most dangerous situations that require skills and equipment beyond the training available to a patrol officer. We recruited a platoon of special forces (n = 18) and examined their basal and reactivity levels of cortisol in relation to occupational duties. More...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2016-07, Vol.58 (7), p.e242-e248
Main Authors: Andersen, Judith P., Dorai, Mala, Papazoglou, Konstantinos, Arnetz, Bengt B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Circadian Rhythm
Finland
Humans
Hydrocortisone - analysis
Inservice Training
Male
Occupational Stress - physiopathology
Original Article
Police
Resilience, Psychological
Saliva - chemistry
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Summary:Special Forces Police are called to the most dangerous situations that require skills and equipment beyond the training available to a patrol officer. We recruited a platoon of special forces (n = 18) and examined their basal and reactivity levels of cortisol in relation to occupational duties. Moreover, we measured the impact of a multiday program of intensive resilience and tactical training in improving cortisol responses to stressful situations. Participants were significantly more likely to exhibit basal cortisol levels higher than the civilian norms across all of the 5 days of intensive training. However, anticipatory cortisol, measured directly before exposure to critical incident scenarios, was significantly lower in Day 5 than in Day 1 of the training period. This study demonstrates that measuring cortisol is an objective method of examining training effects and possible long-term occupational health outcomes.
ISSN:1076-2752
1536-5948
DOI:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000756