Burnout in psychiatrists and psychiatric residents - Results of an empirical investigation

Objective: 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. Methods: 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). Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.