[Understanding the term burnout in psychiatry and psychotherapy]

Currently there is much debate about the concept of burnout and its use as a diagnostic entity. The aim of the present survey was to present the view of mental health professionals towards the concept of burnout.

A total of 300 mental health professionals were surveyed using a structured questionnaire.

The majority of participants see burnout as a state of exhaustion which constitutes a risk factor for later developing a mental disorder. Participants reported that from their point of view typical triggers for burnout exist while symptoms overlap to a great extent with depression. Psychotherapy as well as interventions at the workplace are regarded as promising interventions; however, in the clinical routine only a minority of participants actually contacted the patients' workplace. In the participants workplace settings most Burnout-Patients suffered from a diagnosis defined in ICD 10 but judged themselves to be suffering from burnout.

Burnout-Patients in mental health settings differ from the picture currently drawn in the media, probably because Burnout-Patients reach the mental health sector only after already having developed a manifest psychiatric disorder.