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Baseline Burnout Symptoms Predict Visuospatial Executive Function During Survival School Training in Special Operations Military Personnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2011

Charles A. Morgan III ,
Bartlett Russell ,
Jeff McNeil ,
Jeff Maxwell ,
Peter J. Snyder ,
Steven M. Southwick  and
Robert H. Pietrzak
Charles A. Morgan III
Affiliation:
Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
Bartlett Russell
Affiliation:
Cognitive Motor Neuroscience, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, and Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Jeff McNeil
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Jeff Maxwell
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Proving Grounds, Aberdeen, Maryland
Peter J. Snyder
Affiliation:
Rhode Island Hospital & Department of Neurology, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Steven M. Southwick
Affiliation:
Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
Robert H. Pietrzak*
Affiliation:
Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Robert H. Pietrzak, Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 950 Campbell Avenue/151E, West Haven, CT 06516. E-mail: [email protected]
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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. (JINS, 2011, 17, 494–501)

Keywords

BurnoutStressCognitionLearningExecutive functionMilitaryTraining
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 494 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

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