Detection of volatile organic compounds in the alveolar air of subjects with stress-related psychopathologies

Detection of volatile organic compounds in the alveolar air of subjects with stress-related psychopathologies The upsurge of job demand together with more high-level of Stress, have negative effects on the health of workers including mental disorders. Stress is responsible for various forms of working uneasiness, among which Personal Bullying, Task-related Bullying and Burn-Out that are different expressions of psychosocial Stress. Manifold studies include Depression, Anxious and mixed Anxious-Depressive Disorders among the stress-related psychopathologies. The Italian Institute for Insurance against Industrial Accident (INAIL) recognizes and indemnifies the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Adjustment Disorder as professional illnesses referable to situations of Task-related Bullying. The physiopathology of stress has been known for many years and the biomarkers used for the diagnosis of stress such as cortisol in biological matrices like blood, urine and saliva are obtained with invasive methods and nonelementary protocols. In the last decade many studies have been published documenting the potential role of the alveolar air in the diagnosis of different pathologies (neoplastic, metabolic, inflammatory) through informations on the metabolic state of the patient. Some studies have also applied the analysis of the alveolar air to the psychopathologies, mainly to schizophrenia. 98 workers with mental and somatoform disorders correlated with situations of chronic stress at work and 80 healthy volunteers were submitted to the alveolar air sampling. Concentrations of about one hundred volatile compounds were measured in the exhaled breath using IMR - Mass Spectrometry. Most of the compounds were known only for their masses. A multivariate statistical analysis was performed. Using two different models with a combination respectively of eleven molecules (pentane, cyclopentadiene, acetonitrile, butadiene, hydrocyanic acid, M70, M71, M74, M75, M97 and M123) and three molecules (M27, heptane and M101) has been possible to distinguish the cases from the healthy controls with a 100% sensibility and a 98,75% specificity. The use of mass spectrometry has entailed different advantages: first of all the short time required for the dosing of about one hundred molecules in each sample and the low cost thanks to the possibility to simultaneously analyze hundreds of samples a day; besides the high sensibility of the mass spectrometry analysis allows to quantify molecules at very low concentrations (ppb). Alveolar air sampling is simple and non-invasive and the instrumental analysis is not expensive. The identification of one or more profiles of elective volatile organic compounds in the alveolar air would be useful in the diagnosis of stress-related psychopathologies.