BackgroundBurnout is generally perceived a unified disorder with homogeneous symptomatology across people (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy). However, increasing evidence points to intra-individual patterns of burnout symptoms in non-clinical samples such as students, athletes, healthy, and burned-out employees. Different burnout subtypes might therefore exist. Yet, burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles have hardly been explored in clinical patients, and the samples investigated in previous studies were rather heterogeneous including patients with various physical, psychological, and social limitations, symptoms, and disabilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles in clinically diagnosed burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program, and to investigate whether the subtypes differ in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics.MethodsOne hundred three patients (66 women, 37 men) with a clinical burnout diagnosis, who were enrolled in a 5 week employee rehabilitation program in two specialized psychosomatic clinics in Austria, completed a series of questionnaires including the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Recovery-Stress-Questionnaire for Work. Cluster analyses with the three MBI-GS subscales as clustering variables were used to identify the burnout subtypes. Subsequent multivariate/univariate analysis of variance and Pearson chi-square tests were performed to investigate differences in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsThree different burnout subtypes were discovered: the exhausted subtype, the exhausted/cynical subtype, and the burned-out subtype. The burned-out subtype and the exhausted/cynical subtype showed both more severe depression symptoms and a worse recovery/resources-stress balance than the exhausted subtype. Furthermore, the burned-out subtype was more depressed than the exhausted/cynical subtype, but no difference was observed between these two subtypes with regard to perceived stress, recovery, and resources. Sociodemographic characteristics were not associated with the subtypes.ConclusionsThe present study indicates that there are different subtypes in clinical burnout patients (exhausted, exhausted/cynical, and burned-out), which might represent patients at different developmental stages in the burnout cycle. Future studies need to replicate the current findings, investigate the stability of the symptom patterns, and examine the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions in different subtypes.

Background: Light interventions typically exert their mood-related effects during morning bright light exposures over several weeks. Evidence about immediate ambient room light effects on depressed individuals is still sparse. Objective: The present study aimed at examining the acute effects of a single moderately bright room light exposure on mood, and behavioural and cardiac stress reactions of mildly depressed geriatric inpatients during a short cognitive stimulation and while resting. Methods: Twenty-one inpatients were tested in a balanced cross-over design on 2 consecutive days under either conventional room light (standard light) or artificial sunlight conditions for 30 min. Room illumination was implemented with an artificial skylight, which perfectly imitated solar indoor illumination (e.g., cloudless sky and bright artificial sun). Light-induced changes of mood, heart rate, and heart rate variability were recorded while performing a perseveration test (acted as cognitive stimulation) twice. Additionally, light-related behaviour was observed during a resting period between the cognitive tests and various subjective ratings were obtained. Results: Compared to standard light, exposure to artificial sunlight had a subjective calming effect over time (p = 0.029) as well as decreased heart rate and increased vagal tone (root mean squared of successive inter-beat intervals), both under cognitive workload and in resting conditions. Effect sizes of reported cardiac reactions were large. Cognitive variables were not influenced by light. Additionally, under the higher corneal illuminance of the artificial sunlight, patients perceived stronger glare (p = 0.030) and kept their eyes closed for longer times (p = 0.033) during the resting period. However, patients did not avoid bright light exposure while resting but voluntarily stayed within the area directly lit by the artificial sun nearly all the time (97%). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this study for the first time demonstrated immediate psychophysiological effects of a single, short room light exposure in mildly depressed geriatric inpatients during a short cognitive stimulation and while resting. The findings complement reported evidence on immediate alerting and mood-related effects of bright light exposures.

Against the background of inconsistent findings regarding the symptomatology, etiology, and risk factors of burnout, Farber (1990) proposed three different burnout subtypes: frenetic, underchallenged, and worn-out. Montero-Marín et al. (2011b) expanded the typology to the academic context and developed the Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire-Student Survey (BCSQ-12-SS) to examine whether three burnout risk groups, that are in line with the typology, exist in university students as well. However, due to a moderate overlap between the BCSQ-12-SS subscales describing different risk groups, it has remained unclear whether three burnout risk groups can indeed be distinguished in university students. Moreover, the BCSQ-12-SS is currently not available in German, limiting the possibility to examine the typology in different student populations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate the BCSQ-12-SS for German speaking university students and to investigate whether three burnout risk groups-frenetic, underchallenged, and worn-out-can be identified in students using a person-oriented approach. Overall, 404 German speaking university students were recruited and filled in several online questionnaires, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) and the BCSQ-12-SS that was translated to German for the purpose of this study. The German BCSQ-12-SS had good psychometric properties. Latent profile analysis (LPA) with the BCSQ-12-SS distinguished three burnout risk groups: frenetic, underchallenged, and worn-out students, whereby mildly and severely worn-out students could be differentiated. Additionally, a group with healthy engaged students emerged. The groups differed in burnout symptoms, feelings of depression, workload, study engagement, and academic resources. Furthermore, the burnout risk groups could also be distinguished in a subsample of students (n = 150) who are particularly vulnerable to develop burnout because they were all moderately to highly stressed. LPA with the MBI-SS resulted in profiles similar to the healthy engaged, frenetic and severely worn-out profile. However, an underchallenged profile was only discovered with the BCSQ-12-SS, Bauernhofer et al. Burnout Risk Groups in University Students indicating that this questionnaire is particularly useful to detect an additional burnout risk group that has widely been overlooked in student burnout research so far. Taken together, this study observed three burnout risk groups in German speaking university students: frenetic, underchallenged, and worn-out.

Internet is nowadays an integral part of our lives. However, excessive internet use, which is in many ways comparable to substance addictions and behavioral addictions, has become of growing interest in popular media, health policy and scientific research. Nevertheless, there is still considerable controversy with respect to diagnostic criteria and assessment questionnaires, and the diagnosis does not yet appear in any official diagnostic system such as the DSM-5 or ICD-10. Due to the lack of consistent diagnostic criteria for problematic internet use and both the use of different assessment questionnaires and classification systems, the reported prevalence rates vary significantly across studies. Thus, the comparison of study results is limited.In this review article a brief overview of the various diagnostic criteria and assessment questionnaires as well as the prevalence of problematic internet use (PIN) will be given. Furthermore, several usage-related and person-related risk factors of PIN will be discussed. With regards to the latter, the focus will be on both sociodemographic and psychiatric risk factors and on personality traits.

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