Physicians' Night Shifts are Dangerous

I know the title won’t surprise anyone but now here is a publication that tried to find a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.

Aims: To evaluate the effects of a 24 h (h) physicians on-call duty(OCD) (‘night shift’) on 24 h electrocardiogram(ECG), heart rate variability, blood pressure (BP), and variousbiochemical serum and urine ‘stress markers’ comparedwith a ‘regular’ day at work.

Methods and results: The study was designed as a prospective randomized cross-overtrial with each physician completing a 24 h (h) OCD and a 24h control period including a regular 8 h non-OCD. Thirty healthyphysicians with a median age of 33.5 years (range 29.0–45.0)were analysed. Twenty-four hours ECG and BP monitoring wereperformed and participants were instructed to fill out an eventdiary and perform a 24 h urine collection. Furthermore, bloodwas drawn before and after OCD and control day.

Conclusion: Our results highlight the association of OCD with an increasedrisk profile for cardiovascular disease. In addition to theacute effects observed, frequent night-calls over a longer periodpossibly elicit sustained alterations in cardiovascular homeostasis.

Reference:

Arrhythmias and increased neuro-endocrine stress response during physicians’ night shifts: a randomized cross-over trial

Rauchenzauner et al, European Heart Journal 2009 30(21):2606-2613;

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