title: Baseline burnout symptoms predict visuospatial executive function during survival school training in special operations military personnel.
abstract: Burnout symptoms, which are characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and a reduced sense of professional efficacy, may deleteriously affect cognitive function in military personnel. A total of 32 U.S. Military Special Operations personnel enrolled in Survival School completed measures of trauma history, dissociation, and burnout before training. They then completed the Groton Maze Learning Test (GMLT), a neuropsychological measure of integrative visuospatial executive function during three field-based phases of Survival School-enemy evasion, captivity/interrogation, and escape/release from captivity. Lower pre-training perceptions of professional efficacy were associated with reduced executive function during all of the field-based phases of Survival School, even after adjustment for years of education, cynicism, and baseline GMLT scores. Magnitudes of decrements in executive function in Marines with low efficacy relative to those with high efficacy increased as training progressed and ranged from .58 during enemy evasion to .99 during escape/release from captivity. Pre-training perceptions of burnout may predict visuospatial executive function during naturalistic training-related stress in military personnel. Assessment of burnout symptoms, particularly perceptions of professional efficacy, may help identify military personnel at risk for stress-related executive dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: 1Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: 3Cognitive Motor Neuroscience, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, and Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
authors.forename: Bartlett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: 4U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McNeil
authors.affiliation: 5U.S. Army Proving Grounds, Aberdeen, Maryland.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.affiliation: 6Rhode Island Hospital & Department of Neurology, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: 1Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Southwick
authors.affiliation: 1Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Pietrzak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000175:diagnosis*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013534:Survival / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult