Burnout and Depression

By Peter Walker et al

Over the past few years, Practice Director and Clinical Psychologist, Peter Walker, was involved in a series of research studies on burnout which included some clients of the practice.

Two papers were published in late 2023 attempting to refine the psychological construct of burnout. Burnout is a syndrome characterised by emotional exhaustion, empathy loss and reduced professional accomplishment. It is usually associated with work stress, however can also arise in other situations such as being a student or caring for a loved one. 

One study (Journal of Affective Disorders) aimed to differentiate burnout from clinical depression and found that there were some nuanced differences, but were in fact very similar. It was found that those experienced burnout experienced a greater loss in empathy and had lower social withdrawal than the clinically depressed group. Given the similarity between these groups it was posited that the description of burnout may be less susceptible to stigma than clinical depression, despite being very similar conditions. Read the paper 

The second study (Acta Neuropsychologica) looked at whether burnout is best modelled as a dimensional (lying on a spectrum) or a categorical (a condition you either meet criteria for or you don't) construct. It was found that a categorical model best fit the data. Read the paper


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Conquering Burnout: A Guide For High-Performing Professionals

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Fight or Flight