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Cited by 4,200Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutStress and Burnout ResearchOccupational Health and Burnout

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

Open access
Maslach, Christina, Leiter, Michael P.·2016·World Psychiatry
DOI 10.1002/wps.20311PMC PMC4911781
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Abstract

The experience of burnout has been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Measures have been developed, as have various theoretical models, and research studies from many countries have contributed to a better understanding of the causes and consequences of this occupationally‐specific dysphoria. The majority of this work has focused on human service occupations, and particularly health care. Research on the burnout experience for psychiatrists mirrors much of the broader literature, in terms of both sources and outcomes of burnout. But it has also identified some of the unique stressors that mental health professionals face when they are dealing with especially difficult or violent clients. Current issues of particular relevance for psychiatry include the links between burnout and mental illness, the attempts to redefine burnout as simply exhaustion, and the relative dearth of evaluative research on potential interventions to treat and/or prevent burnout. Given that the treatment goal for burnout is usually to enable people to return to their job, and to be successful in their work, psychiatry could make an important contribution by identifying the treatment strategies that would be most effective in achieving that goal.

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Burnout was measured with the full 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel, a well-validated instrument.

    “we measured burnout using the full 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel MBI-HSS (MP), a well-validated tool designed to investigate the three burnout dimensions, emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) [1].”

    From Burnout among neurology residents during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national cross-sectional study (2022) · cites this paper as [1]

    The Assessment of burnout section describes the MBI as a validated, standard research tool designed to assess three burnout dimensions. The Burnout and mental illness section identifies exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment as the MBI-HSS dimensions. Our copy does not specify a 22-item version or identify a Medical Personnel variant; the citing authors’ statement that they used it is their own method, not a finding of this source. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Emotional exhaustion is the key psychological dimension of burnout, characterised by a stress reaction related to work demands and overload.

    “Emotional exhaustion is the key psychological dimension of burnout that is characterised by a stress reaction related to work demands and overload (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).”

    From Intervention Programs Targeting the Mental Health, Professional Burnout, and/or Wellbeing of School Teachers: Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (2023) · cites this paper as Maslach & Leiter, 2016

    In “Defining Burnout” (page unavailable), the paper identifies exhaustion as one of three key dimensions of a psychological response to chronic job stress. “Causes and Outcomes” links work overload to burnout, and “Single or Multiple Dimensions” links exhaustion to overload. But the paper does not establish emotional exhaustion as the single key dimension; it cautions that exhaustion alone is not a proxy for burnout and suggests cynicism may be more central. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Both structured organizational interventions and individual-level coping approaches were reported, many of which were associated with improved resilience, engagement, and professional functioning.

    “Both structured organizational interventions and individual-level coping approaches were reported, many of which were associated with improved resilience, engagement, and professional functioning, consistent with occupational health literature on proactive burnout mitigation (2–4).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [3]

    The Treatment and prevention section describes organizational interventions and individual coping approaches. It reports reduced cynicism after a workplace-civility intervention and return to work after group therapy, but does not establish that many approaches improved resilience, engagement, or professional functioning. The section instead emphasizes that few approaches have been evaluated for efficacy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Organizational support reduces burnout risk and strengthens workforce resilience.

    “These findings are aligned with global evidence showing that organizational support reduces burnout risk and strengthens workforce resilience (2, 3).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [3]

    In “Causes and Outcomes” (page not provided), the paper links lack of workplace support and trust to greater burnout risk, while associating supportive relationships with job engagement. It does not establish that organizational support strengthens workforce resilience; “Treatment and prevention” also cautions that evidence on the effectiveness of burnout-reduction interventions is limited. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Cyclical models of burnout propose the decline in self-fulfillment as the final stage of the syndrome, following emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, concluding in a feeling of incompetence and lack of achievement at work, which negatively affects self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

    “Cyclical models of burnout (57) propose the decline in self-fulfillment as the final stage of the syndrome, following emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, conclude in a feeling of incompetence and lack of achievement at work, which negatively affects self-esteem and personal satisfaction (60).”

    From Evolution of burnout syndrome in Spanish healthcare professionals during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: psychosocial variables involved (2025) · cites this paper as [57]

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Cites

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2 of the 83 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. [3]3. Maslach C, Jackson SE, Leiter MP (eds). Maslach Burnout Inventory man- ual, 3rd ed. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1996.
  2. [22]22. Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP. Job burnout. Annu Rev Psychol 2001; 52:397-422.
  3. [32]32. Burke RJ, Shearer J, Deszca G. Burnout among men and women in police work: an examination of the Cherniss model. J Health Hum Res Admin 1984;7:162-88.
  4. [46]46. Maslach C, Courtois C. Burnout. In: Reyes G, Elhai J, Ford J (eds). Encyclo- pedia of psychological trauma. Hoboken: Wiley, 2009:103-7.
  5. [57]57. Scarfone D. Le syndrome d'epuisement professionnel (burnout): y aurait- il de la fumee sans feu? Ann Med Psychol 1985;143:754-61.
  6. [62]62. Raedeke TD, Arce C, De Francisco C et al. The construct validity of the Spanish version of the ABQ using a multi-trait/multi-method approach. Anales de Psicolog ıa 2012;29:693-700.
  7. [77]77. Demerouti E. Individual strategies to prevent burnout. In: Leiter MP, Bak- ker AB, Maslach C (eds). Burnout at work: a psychological perspective. London: Psychology Press, 2014:32-55.
  8. [78]78. Leiter MP, Maslach C. Interventions to prevent and alleviate burnout. In: Leiter MP, Bakker AB, Maslach C (eds). Burnout at work: a psychological perspective. London: Psychology Press, 2014:145-67.

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Authors
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Berkeley (US)
  • Acadia University (CA)
ORCID
Venue
World Psychiatry
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2016-06
Volume
15
Issue
2
Pages
103-111
ISSN
  • 1723-8617 (ISSN-L)
  • 2051-5545
DOI
10.1002/wps.20311
PMC
PMC4911781
OpenAlex
W2488757378
Semantic Scholar
bd7909e22b7f5065b135cb093af9faa87b271a78
Cited by
4,200
References
83
Citations by year
2026: 840 · 2025: 776 · 2024: 532 · 2023: 523 · 2022: 502 · 2021: 387 · 2020: 298 · 2019: 175 · 2018: 94 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 1
FWCI
208.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 4 d)
Locations
  • World Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
burnout, psychiatrists, occupational stress, healthcare workers, burnout measurement, burnout models, burnout prevention, burnout treatment, return to work

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