• Xavier Torres, Begoña Ojeda, Antonio Collado, Emília Solé, Jesús Vergara, Emili Gómez, Xavier Castells, and Anna Arias.
• From Unitat de Fibromiàlgia, Servei de Reumatologia, ICEMEQ, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (BO, AC, EG, AA); Unitat de Fibromiàlgia, Servei de Psiquiatria i Psicologia, Institut Clínic de Neurociències, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (XT); Joan XXIII University Hospital, Tarragona, Spain (ES); Unidad de Gestión Clínica Bajo Andarax, Almería, Spain (JV); Department of Epidemiology and Evaluation, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain (XC).
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2020 May 1; 33 (3): 386-396.

ObjectiveBurnout among physicians has increased, affecting not only doctors but also the quality of patient care. Treating challenging disorders, such as fibromyalgia, may increase the risk of feeling burned out. Health care of fibromyalgia patients is increasingly being assigned to family physicians. Therefore, we described the demographic characteristics, work contexts, component burnout scores (exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment), and perceptions of fibromyalgia care of Spanish family medicine physicians with high and low levels of burnout. We then evaluated which of these variables were associated with having high or low levels of burnout.MethodThis cross-sectional study assessed 506 family physicians recruited from the Spanish Society of Family Physicians and randomly selected from Primary Health Care Centers. The subgrouping of family physicians based on their burnout scores was assessed by cluster analysis. Variables showing statistically significant differences between clusters and significance below 0.25 in univariate logistic regressions were assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis.ResultsFamily physicians reporting higher burnout scores (25%) felt that fibromyalgia patients on sick leave increased their workload, reported no support from nurses in the treatment of fibromyalgia patients, and had a more negative impression of fibromyalgia patients.ConclusionsOne-quarter of family physicians reported feeling exhausted, detached from fibromyalgia patients, or less professionally accomplished. Several personal characteristics and contextual variables increased burnout. Several interventions to modify these variables and, thus, protect family physicians treating fibromyalgia from burnout are suggested.© Copyright 2020 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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