Abuse During Childhood and Burnout

Abstract

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment is the most important risk factor for the onset of psychiatric disorders. Revictimization is really frequent as well as substance or alcohol abuse, often linked to self-treatment. Accordingly, our pilot study aims to analyze possible implication of childhood maltreatment on resilience and burnout.MethodsPatients admitted to outpatients psychiatric department in a six month period (1st January 2015–30th June 2015) complaining low to moderate anxiety or depression have been administered childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) and Maslach burnout inventory.ResultsCTQ results in 71 (87%) Emotional Neglect (EN), 2 (2.4%) Sexual Abuse (SA) and 2 (2.4%) Physical Abuse (PA). Twenty-one showed high emotional exhaustion, 21 high depersonalization, 9 moderate personal accomplishment while 1 showed low personal accomplishment. None of the patients who suffered child sexual abuse shows depersonalization or personal accomplishment difficulties linked to burnout. Patients negative to CTQ show respectively moderate emotional exhaustion (M = 20 ± 20.15), moderate depersonalization (11 ± 9.42) and high personal accomplishment (17 ± 12.38). Patients who suffered emotional neglect show the poorest profile at Maslach, particularly regarding emotional exhaustion. ANOVA reaches statistical significance among the 3 groups of detected abuse (EN, SA, PA) in personal accomplishment (P = 0.013) confirmed at POST HOC between EN and SA (P = 0.0004).ConclusionThe results obtained in this pilot study highlight two important considerations. First, it seems urgent to stress the huge prevalence of emotional neglect among those referred to psychiatric outpatient department due to moderate anxiety or depression complain. Moreover, emotional neglect appears to be the most compromised factor of burnout, especially if compared to sexual abuse.

Mentalizing psychiatric training

“…The report by Castellini et al importantly extends the research connecting early adversity with an increased susceptibility to burnout 11–14 . Their work offers new insights by elucidating a mediating pathway from childhood adversity to burnout risk in psychiatric and other medical trainees.…”

“…10 The report by Castellini et al importantly extends the research connecting early adversity with an increased susceptibility to burnout. [11][12][13][14] Their work offers new insights by elucidating a mediating pathway from childhood adversity to burnout risk in psychiatric and other medical trainees. This pathway involves attachment insecurity and low self-mentalizing, evidenced by inadequate emotion regulation and coping strategies.…”