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

Objective: The study aimed at assessing burnout in psychiatrists and psychi atric residents, all of them working in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and at identifying some of its correlates. Methods: Potentially burnout- re lated demographic, work, leisure activities, and personality (Munich Person ality Test) variables were studied in three subgroups of 307 probands - psy chiatric residents, psychiatrists working as staff members or in leading po sitions in psychiatric institutions, and psychiatrists working in private p ractice - the degree of burnout having been assessed with the Tedium Measur e (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, w ho also scored higher with regard to neuroticism and lower with regard to f rustration tolerance on MPT. Conclusions: Neuroticism alone explained a sub stantial proportion of the total TM variance in individual groups. Work-rel ated variables turned out to be of a small importance only, whereas no infl uence could be demonstrated for different leisure activities.