Burn-out syndrome among Italian psychiatry residents: Results for Italy from the BOSS international study

Background and aims: Acknowledged risk factorsfor burnout syndrome include being a mental healthworker, younger age (in the sense of less professionalexperience) and status as a residents. The aim of theBOSS International Study was to put all these and otherrisk factors together and study their associations, aspredictors of this undesirable condition. 20 countriesworldwide were involved. Results from the Italianparticipants are displayed and discussed here.Methods: An invitation to join in the study was sentto 193 residents in psychiatry from the whole nationalterritory of Italy, including a link to the BOSS onlinequestionnaire (Italian version); this collects data ondemographics, education, working circumstances, andfrom five psychometric instruments (Maslach BurnoutInventory – MBI-GS, Areas of Worklife Survey, PHQ-9,Big Five Inventory - 10, Suicide Ideation and BehaviourQuestionnaire).Results: A total of 113 residents completed the survey(58.5% response rate, 22/78% M/F, mean age 30.3-3.7). Mean scores at the three MBI components were2.9 (exhaustion), 1.9 (cynicism) and 4.8 (professionalefficacy), accounting for low levels of burnout amongthe respondents. 14% of respondents confessed theywere on daily medication, mainly antidepressants (42%)and self-prescribed (50%). Out of all respondents, 34.8%met criteria for PHQ-9 minor depression, and 8.9%. formajor depression. Only PHQ9-depression was found tobe a statistically significant predictor of burnout.Conclusions: Despite the low level of burnout amongItalian residents in psychiatry, other findings in theBOSS survey suggested the need for improved supportand tutoring of young psychiatrists-to-be. This presents asignificant challenge for training organisations.