CCNY Psychologist Links Burnout and Depression

Research by City College of New York psychology ProfessorIrvin Schonfeld in the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership suggests a strong connection between burnout and depression.  

In a study of more than 5,500 school teachers to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in workers with burnout, 90% of the subjects identified as burned out met diagnostic criteria for depression. 
 
The study also examined the overlap of burnout with the atypical subtype of depression. Features of atypical depression were observed in 63% of the burned-out participants with major depression.
 
“The study suggests that the burnout– depression overlap has been largely underestimated,” said Professor Schonfeld, whose collaborators included University of Franche-Comté psychologists Renzo Bianchi and Eric Laurent. “Atypical depression may account for a substantial part of this overlap. Overall, our findings point to depressive symptoms and depressive disorders as central concerns in the management of burnout. The clinical research on treatments for depression offers solutions that may help workers identified as
burned out.”
 
A paper on the study, “Is Burnout a Depressive Disorder? A Reexamination With Special Focus on Atypical Depression,” appears in the current issue of “International Journal of Stress Management.”
 
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.