High Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and Low Psychological Flexibility and associate with Fatigue symptoms

Background Recent studies showed that enhancing psychological flexibility could improve fatigue interference. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and Cortisol were proposed to involve biomarkers in psychological flexibility. Our study aims to explore the association of fatigue with psychological flexibility and related biomarkers. Method A cross-sectional study gathered data from a baseline characteristic mindful volunteer. Each participant was self-evaluated with the questionnaire of fatigue and psychological flexibility. The participants were evaluated potential biomarkers related to psychological flexibility including HRV, serum cortisol, and BDNF within one week after responding to the questionnaire. Results The 47 healthy females including 22 nurses and 25 occupational therapy students, mean age 29.70 ± 12.55 years. The prevalence of fatigue is 38.30%. The multivariate analysis showed the independent factors associated with fatigue including negative psychological flexibility (OR 1.31, p=0.03) and high BDNF (OR 1.33, p=0.05). Conclusion Our study found that psychological flexibility and high BDNF was independent factors associate with fatigue. This result provide insight that intervention that increase either psychological flexibility may prevent fatigue symptoms. The high BDNF may reflex the adaptive response of fatigue person and may be potential biomarkers for detecting early fatigue conditions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Protocols ### Funding Statement None ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Chiang Mai university's research ethics committee (FAM 2561 05328) gave ethical approveal for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors