Symptoms of burnout appear to be prevalent among Irish GPs and this is likely to have a detrimental effect on both them and their patients, it has been claimed.

Burnout refers to physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. It is caused by a person's long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations and it can lead to a loss of purpose and depersonalisation, i.e. treating people as if they are objects.

According to researchers in the Department of General Practice at NUI Galway, healthcare professionals are ‘particularly susceptible' to burnout due to the nature of their work and studies worldwide suggest that one-third of doctors are affected at any one time.

They pointed to a recent study of almost 700 GPs, which was published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science. Over 50% of these GPs had at least one symptom of burnout, with 52% of these reporting high levels of emotional exhaustion and 31% scoring high in the area of depersonalisation.

That study found that GPs under the age of 40 displayed much higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation than GPs over the age of 56. Male GPs were also found to display higher levels of depersonalisation than female GPs.

According to the NUI Galway researchers, burnout can have a major impact on doctors. They are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs and have higher rates of job turnover, which can affect quality of care.

High levels of burnout are also linked with higher rates of depression and an increased risk of alcohol and drug misuse.

Meanwhile, burnout can also have a major impact on patients, the researchers emphasised.

"Patients who receive care from doctors with high levels of burnout can be put at risk of harm. Stressed, burned out and dissatisfied physicians have reported a greater likelihood of making errors and have reported more frequent instances of suboptimal patient care," they noted.

They called for more research in this area.

"The symptoms of burnout appear prevalent among Irish GPs and this is likely to have a detrimental impact both upon individual GPs and the patients they serve. Further research is required to evaluate interventions to improve GP wellbeing," they said.

The researchers, which included Kilkenny-based GP, Dr Brian O'Dea, and Prof Andrew Murphy, made their comments in Forum, the journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners.