Emergency Medical Technicians are health professionals commonly exposed to dangerous traumatic scenarios which can lead to an altered hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and stress related symptoms; however, the stress intensity may be mediated by personality traits such as self-esteem. We tested, in a population of 96 EMTs from the National Red Cross, the hypothesis of reduced cortisol secretion after the exposition to traumatic content images that could represent a stressor in non-paramedic healthy volunteers (59 non-EMTs). We took three saliva samples to measure cortisol (basal, 15 and 30 min after the images) and quantified the levels of self-esteem, perceived and physiological stress. Results showed a peak of cortisol 15 min after the images in the non-EMTs population, whereas a decreased cortisol profile was observed in EMTs, suggesting a higher sensitivity for a negative feedback regulation of cortisol. EMTs had lower levels of perceived stress but higher physiological stress symptoms than non-EMTs. The most important predictors of cortisol levels in EMTs were the number of working days per week and self-esteem which also had a negative correlation with perceived and physiological stress. We suggested that, in general, this paramedic population is habituated and predisposed to accidental scenarios.

紧急医疗技术人员是卫生专业人员，通常容易遭受危险的外伤，可能导致下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴改变和与压力相关的症状；然而，压力强度可能由诸如自尊之类的人格特质介导。我们在来自国家红十字会的96名EMT中，对暴露于可能代表非护理人员健康志愿者（59名非EMT）中压力源的创伤内容图像后皮质醇分泌减少的假设进行了测试。我们抽取了三个唾液样本来测量皮质醇（分别在图像后的15分钟和30分钟），并量化了自尊，感知和生理压力的水平。结果显示，在非EMT人群中，图像显示15分钟后皮质醇水平达到峰值，而在EMT中观察到皮质醇水平降低，提示对皮质醇的负反馈调节具有更高的敏感性。与非EMT相比，EMT的感知压力水平较低，但生理压力症状较高。EMT中皮质醇水平最重要的预测指标是每周工作日数和自尊心，这与感知压力和生理压力也呈负相关。我们建议，一般来说，这种护理人员是习惯性的，容易发生意外情况。