31.6 Burnout and Depression Among Residents and Faculty in a Single Academic Medical Institution: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Burnout is defined as a long-term, unresolvable job stress leading to feelings of exhaustion, overwhelm, cynicism, detachment from job, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment. Medscape Physician Burnout surveys have shown that over 40% of physicians report burnout. There is a scarcity of studies that investigated the association between physician burnout and depression. Our study aimed to investigate this association and to compare this association's changes by groups of interest. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology–Self Report (QIDS-SR) were used to assess burnout (N = 168) and depression (N = 167) among faculty and trainees (residents and fellows) in Psychiatry and Pediatrics at a large academic medical institution in the Southeast. The 3 subscale scores of MBI (emotional exhaustion [EE], depersonalization [DP], and personal accomplishment [PA]) and QIDS-SR scores were analyzed between trainees vs faculty, race, gender, and specialty. χ2 and Fischer’s exact tests were used to determine statistical significance of categorical association. Approximately 28% of faculty and trainees had high EE, and trainees reported nearly twice as much moderate EE than faculty (18.75% vs 39.29%). Trainees had high DP compared to faculty (41.07% vs 12.5%), and more psychiatrists reported high DP than pediatricians (35.81% vs 12.87). Notably, African American physicians reported a higher rate of depression than White physicians and physicians of other races (14.29% vs 11.11% and 11.9%, respectively) with no difference in depression rates between faculty and residents, by specialty, or by gender. Eleven percent of trainees and 14% of faculty reported clinically significant depression. There was significant correlation between burnout and depression (p < 0.0001). Physicians in training were twice as likely to experience burnout. High burnout is a predictor of clinically significant depression. Although this is a pilot study with only 2 specialties, the rate of depression is found to be higher (11%-14%) than the general population (7.1%). Creating a better understanding of the interrelationships among these measures can increase awareness among the physician community, which may help identify burnout early, seek help, and prevent serious downstream effects such as anxiety, depression, and suicide.