Burnout Is More Common Among Physicians Than in the U.S. General Population

Burnout rates are high in family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine.

Interest in burnout among physicians has mainly yielded small and single-specialty or single-institution studies. Recent findings — that burnout among physicians has substantial adverse effects on professionalism and performance — led to this U.S. national study of 27,276 physicians; 7288 (median age, 55; 72% male) responded to a survey request.

Respondents worked a median of 50 hours weekly with a median of 1 night weekly on call, most worked in academic settings or private practice, and 26% provided primary care. Using various validated questionnaires, 45% scored positive for burnout (compared with 23% of the general population), 38% screened positive for depression, and 6% had thoughts about suicide in the past 12 months. Roughly half (48%) agreed that their work schedules left enough time for personal and family life.

Burnout scores were highest for physicians in emergency medicine, general internal medicine, neurology, and family medicine and were lowest for those in dermatology, general pediatrics, and pathology. Satisfaction with work-life balance was highest in dermatology, general pediatrics, and radiology and was lowest in general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and neurology.

Comment

Although the 27% response rate (common for studies of this kind) and the preponderance of physicians in specialty care make generalization to broad practicing physician populations difficult, the results are consistent with those of many previous studies of both burnout and depression. Unfortunately, the known high prevalence of burnout, depression, and suicidal ideation in physicians and medical students never seems to lead to concentrated and effective efforts at prevention and intervention. This might say as much about our generally unhealthy approach to our work and personal lives as do the results themselves.

Reviewing Author

Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsUpToDate

Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsUpToDate

Citation(s):

Shanafelt TD et al. Burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance among US physicians relative to the general US population. Arch Intern Med 2012 Aug 20; [e-pub ahead of print]. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3199)