1117 – Psychopathological dimensions of burn out syndrome: depression and anxiety correlates

Abstract

Burn out syndrome (BOS) is considered as a major issue for stress-related professions, with severe clinical and management implications. According to Maslach BOS is manifested with: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and low personal accomplishment (PA). Our recent studies have revealed links between personality, psychological climate and vulnerability to burn out (Stoyanov and Cloninger 2011, Tilov et al.2012, Raycheva et al. 2012). At the same time there is growing awareness of the psychopathological features of burn out, considered by some authors as clinical depression (Acker, 2011). The present study aims at comprehensive assessment of the psychopathological correlates of burn out, more specifically depression and anxiety. We have employed the self-assessment questionnaire for depression and anxiety of T. Tashev (DAQ) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) as standardized for Bulgarian population. DAQ is composed of the following pertinent to our objective scales: general anxiety (GA), vegetative (V); obsessive (O) and depressive (D); MBI is based on the dimensions EE, DP and PA. Our study consists of 70 employees from the system of health care and medical education. The statistical analysis has been performed according to the method of Spearman. The results reveal significant positive correlations of GA, V, D, O from DAQ with EE and DP from MBI and negative correlations of the DAQ scales with PA. It confirms the hypothesis that BOS has clinical manifestations consistent with measures for depression and anxiety disorders. However these trends may indicate the presence of the initial stage of BOS - “flame out”.