Relationships between exhaustive mood state and changes in stress hormones following an ultraendurance race

To investigate how the pituitary-adrenal and sympathetic nervous hormones change in psychologically exhaustive states following an ultraendurance race, the Profile of Mood States (POMS), plasma ACTH, beta-endorphin, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and serum cortisol were measured in 29 male athletes two days before, immediately after, and one day after a triathlon. Psychological exhaustion was defined as possessing low POMS vigour and high fatigue immediately post-race. Eleven subjects met the criteria for the exhaustive group, and another ten were placed in the vigour group, which possessed high vigour regardless of fatigue score and the remaining eight subjects were excluded from analysis because they did not satisfy experimental protocol. Student's t-tests revealed no significant group differences in age, race time, pre-race POMS and hormone values. Immediately post-race, serum cortisol and plasma adrenaline did not differ between groups. However, significantly lower levels of plasma beta-endorphin (p=0.03) and noradrenaline (p=0.05), and relatively lower levels of plasma ACTH (p=0.08) immediately post-race were observed in the exhaustive group when compared with the vigour group. We conclude that pituitary and sympathetic nervous hormone reactivity is attenuated following ultraendurance race in athletes showing psychological exhaustion and this is independent of race performance.