Burnout and Mental Illness related Stigma among Healthcare Professionals in Pakistan

Burnout and Mental illness are both considered the major contributing factors to the global health crisis. The present study aimed to assess burnout and mental illness-related stigma among Pakistani healthcare practitioners. The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional one. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a pre-validated tool for measuring burnout, Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), a tool for measuring anxiety symptomss, and the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) quantified the severity of work-attributed depressive symptoms among 382 healthcare professionals. Data was collected and analyzed using SPSS. Spearman's correlation determined the relation between burnout dimensions and occupational depression. The results of the current study highlighted overall no significant difference in MBI scores with respect to different demographic characteristics. The results of the present study showed a weak positive correlation between burnout and ODI. However, all the burnout dimensions correlated with each other. The results of the present study concluded that healthcare professionals encounter high levels of burnout along with mild anxiety and a moderate level of occupational depression. Male healthcare professionals had higher symptoms of generalized anxiety disorders as compared to females. Occupational depression was higher among male professionals, those having more than 20 years of experience, and professionals working as nurses and in community pharmacy settings.