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Sources of stress, psychological distress and burnout in psychiatrists

Comparison of junior doctors, senior registrars and consultants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Elspeth Guthrie ,
Teresa Tattan ,
Edwina Williams ,
Dawn Black  and
Himant Bacliocotti
Elspeth Guthrie*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Rawnsley Building, CMHT, Manchester M13 9BX
Teresa Tattan
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Edwina Williams
Affiliation:
Westminster and Chelsea Hospitals, London
Dawn Black
Affiliation:
Hope Hospital Salford
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Aims

To assess the degree of psychological morbidity and burnout in 138 psychiatrists in three Manchester teaching hospitals.

Results

The results for senior house officers (SHOs), registrars, senior registrars and consultants were compared. The overall response rate was 76.8%. There was no significant difference in psychological morbidity between the three training grades, but SHOs and registrars reported significantly higher levels of burnout than either senior registrars or consultants. Dealing with violent patients was stressful for all psychiatrists, no matter what the grade.

Clinical implications

Factors related to job stress in psychiatry need to be addressed. In particular, the provision of safer working environments needs to be considered for psychiatrists at all levels of training.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , April 1999 , pp. 207 - 212
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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