Occurrence of Burnout Syndrome among Mental Health Professionals in An Egyptian sample

Abstract

urnout is a syndrome characterized by the loss of emotional, mental, and physical energy due to continued job related stress. As noted, burnout is defined as a combination of three elements: (1) emotional exhaustion: the depletion of emotional energy by continued work related demands, (2) depersonalization: a sense of emotional distance from one's patients or job, and (3) low personal accomplishment: which is a decreased sense of self-worth or efficacy related to work. Although burnout was extensively studied in literature, it is not defined as a diagnosis in ICD-10 or in DSM-5. Yet it is diagnosed by office-based doctors and clinicians. Mainly due to reimbursement reasons and insurance issues in western countries, diagnoses like depression are used instead of burnout diagnoses. Burnout may be associated with depression, but the relationship between the two is complex. The symptomatology of burnout seems to be complex, described it in a 7- clusters model, and described it in a 12-phases model. The consequences of burnout in medical professions are potentially quite serious and include deterioratio