Burnout in psychiatric physicians. Results of an empirical study

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing burnout in psychiatrists and psychiatric residents, all of them working in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and at identifying some of its correlates. Potentially burnout- related demographic, work, leisure activities, and personality (Munich Personality Test) variables were studied in three subgroups of 307 probands--psychiatric residents, psychiatrists working as staff members or in leading positions in psychiatric institutions, and psychiatrists working in private practice--the degree of burnout having been assessed with the Tedium Measure (TM). The mean TM score of all probands of 2.9 (SD = 0.7) was on a low level, high TM scores (> 3.5) were indicated by 57 (18%) participants. Significantly higher TM scores were indicated by psychiatric residents, who also scored higher with regard to neuroticism and lower with regard to frustration tolerance on MPT. Neuroticism alone explained a substantial proportion of the total TM variance in individual groups. Work-related variables turned out to be of a small importance only, whereas no influence could be demonstrated for different leisure activities.