Burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. It affects talented and committed individuals working in demanding working conditions.

Although the risk of the medical community to develop the syndrome is extensively documented, this is the first study that assesses the risk of Burn Out in populations of physicians working in the pharmaceutical industry as managers,researchers or executives.

The survey was performed amongst the 175 members of the Belgian Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians. The primary objective aimed to assess the lifetime prevalence of burnout.

Maslach Burnout Inventory Scale was used to assess gravity of the components of burnout (depersonalization, professional accomplishment, emotional exhaustion).

Eighty members responded. Fifty percent suffered from burnout.

Marital status,solid social network are protecting factors. Stress antecedents aggravate the risk of relapse.

There is a relationship between occurrence of health problems and intensity of emotional exhaustion.

Demography, symptoms profile and the significant factors contributing to the risk are presented.

This snapshot reveals that pharmaceutical physicians continue to be burned out at the same rate as their colleagues clinicians, not aligning on the general employee population.

Given the significant mutual investment from pharmaceutical companies and physicians in each other, prevention should be actively pursued to provide higher job satisfaction as well as better productivity.

The authors believe this findings warrant further study, possibly longitudinally, to uncover possible coping strategies and occurrence of relapse.