Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry

Summary & key facts

Researchers have studied burnout for several decades. They have made tests and theories and used studies from many countries. Most work has looked at human service jobs, especially health care. Research on psychiatrists shows similar causes and results as other fields. But psychiatry also faces some unique stresses, such as working with very difficult or violent clients. There are open questions about how burnout links with mental illness, whether burnout is just exhaustion, and which treatments actually help people return to work.

Key facts:

• Research on burnout has grown over the past few decades and has produced measurement tools and theoretical models.
• Most burnout research has focused on human service occupations, with a particular emphasis on health care.
• Studies of psychiatrists find similar sources and outcomes of burnout as the broader literature, but also note unique stressors for mental health professionals who work with especially difficult or violent clients.
• Current issues highlighted include: (a) links between burnout and mental illness, (b) efforts to redefine burnout as simply exhaustion, and (c) a relative lack of evaluative research testing interventions to prevent or treat burnout.
• The usual stated treatment goal for burnout is to enable people to return to their job and be successful at work.
• The article suggests psychiatry could contribute by identifying which treatment strategies are most effective at helping people return to and succeed in their jobs.

Topics

Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout Stress and Burnout Research Workplace Health and Well-being

Categories

General Health Professions Health Professions Health Sciences

Tags

Burnout Clinical psychology Medicine Mental health Psychiatry Psychological intervention Psychology Stressor