[Burnout among mental health professionals: A Tunisian experience]

Burnout syndrome consists in physical as well as mental exhaustion observed in professionals whose work involves continuous contact with other people. Psychiatrists and psychiatry nursing staff are considered to be vulnerable to experiencing burnout. The purposes of this study aim to investigate the prevalence of burnout syndrome in practitioners, residents and nurses working in the psychiatric hospital of Tunisia. It also aims to investigate the relationship between burnout, depression, and a variety of personal variables, including age, gender, marital, parental and personal difficulties within this population.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among the nursing staff (n=54), residents (n=41) and practitioners (n=11) in Razi hospital in Tunisia. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Beck depression inventory and a general questionnaire on demographic data were used.

High levels of burnout were detected among nurses. This was true for the emotional tiredness sub-scale (mean score: 26.18); the depersonalization subscale (mean score: 10.20) and for the alteration of personal achievements (mean score: 32.94). High scores in emotional tiredness were correlated to depression (P=0.000; R=0.56) and to personal difficulties (P=0.021; R=0.31) in this group. Residents showed high scores in personal achievements (mean score: 32.56), and practitioners did not reach the cutoff scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

Our results are somewhat comparable to those of studies in other countries. Burnout syndrome was highly prevalent among nurses and residents. This study corroborates former results of a relation between depression and burnout. A strong relationship was found between personal difficulties and burnout, but seemed to be more specific to the nursing sample.