[Effects of shift work of air traffic controllers on several parameters of the activity of the sympathetic-adrenal...

Using a Start air traffic control system, sympathetic-adrenal parameters were measured in air controllers who worked in the morning, afternoon or night shifts. The highest catecholamine excretion was detected in air traffic controllers, who worked at night-time with a low workload Night-time work led to a stress reaction in a larger number of air controllers. In every shift a certain number of air controllers showed a decrease of catecholamine excretion, which can be viewed as a manifestation of sympathetic-adrenal inadequacy and a failure of adaptation mechanisms. The paper gives a detailed description of correlations between epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine and DOPA excretion.