Associating Emergency Medical Services personnel's workload, trauma exposure, and health with the cortisol, endocannabinoid, and N-acylethanolamine concentrations in their hair
Observational studyHumans
- Design
- Observational study
- Subjects
- 72 German Emergency Medical Services personnel
- Dose used in the study
- Not applicable; palmitoylethanolamide was measured in hair, not given
- Duration
- 1 cm hair strands, reflecting roughly the previous month
- What was measured
- Hair cortisol, anandamide, 2-AG, stearoylethanolamide, oleoylethanolamide and palmitoylethanolamide, correlated with workload, lifetime trauma exposure and mental and physical health symptoms.
What the authors reported
This observational study found:
- Cortisol and 2-AG were negatively correlated.
- Higher cortisol went with higher workload.
- Reported childhood and later traumatic stress and more severe depressive and physical stress symptoms were associated with higher 2-AG, stearoylethanolamide, oleoylethanolamide and palmitoylethanolamide concentrations.
Limits of this study
A cross-sectional correlation study of the body's own PEA; it did not test PEA treatment and cannot show cause. The authors declare no competing interests.
Source
PubMed 33376241 · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79859-x
Entry checked against the abstract on PubMed on 2026-09-22. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.