Subtypes in clinical burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program: differences in burnout profiles, depression, and recovery/resources-stress balance

Abstract

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.

The integrated motivational–volitional model of suicidal behaviour

“…The centrality of entrapment within the suicidal process was also evident in a study of 200 adult psychiatric patients who had been hospitalized following a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation. The authors found that entrapment fully mediated the relationship between ruminative flooding, panic-dissociation and fear of dying with suicidal ideation [ 73 ].…”

Frenetic, Underchallenged, and Worn-Out: Validation of the German “Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire”—Student Survey and Exploration of Three Burnout Risk Groups in University Students

“…Yet, severely worn-out students experienced even less social support at the university (Jacobs and Dodd, 2003) and they tended to have more difficulties to detach from their studies during leisure time. The lower level of resources might also explain why severely worn-out students were less engaged in their studies and had more severe burnout symptoms overall (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017;Salmela-Aro and Read, 2017;Bauernhofer et al, 2018). In fact, severely worn-out students had the least favorable profile of all students.…”

“…Using a person-oriented approach to burnout, such as cluster analysis or latent profile analysis (LPA), is one way to examine how many burnout risk groups there might exist (Mäkikangas and Kinnunen, 2016). Previous studies used the three MBI subscales in clustering/LPA to explore whether subgroups with distinct symptom profiles can be distinguished (e.g., Mäkikangas and Kinnunen, 2016;Bauernhofer et al, 2018). The most common profiles that occurred in these studies were the burnedout and the engaged profile, including people with either high or low scores on all three burnout dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism, and feelings of inefficacy).…”

“…Regarding resources, Farber (1990) suggested that merely the worn-out subtype lacks resources, but according to the job demand-resources (JD-R) model, lack of resources contributes fundamentally to burnout development (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017;Salmela-Aro and Read, 2017). Hence, the frenetic and the underchallenged subtype may lack resources as well, although they may lack different types of resources, including non-academic resources, such as the ability to unwind during leisure time (Bauernhofer et al, 2018). Furthermore, resources are associated with study engagement (Salmela-Aro and Read, 2017), which is a pleasurable, fulfilling state of mind, characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli et al, 2002).…”

Burnout syndrome prevalence in veterinarians working in Chile

“…During the last decade, Burnout Syndrome has become a public health problem, with a prevalence of between 4% and 7% of the active working population (Maslach et al 2001). Diagnoses continue without being included in clinical classification systems, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) (Bauernhofer et al 2018). There is also no consensus on the definition of Burnout Syndrome and its main symptoms (Shirom and Melamed, 2006).…”