Burnout, neurotic symptoms and coping strategies in medical students

the early stages of a medical career - as early as in medical college. Medical studies are considered one of the most stressful majors, leading to early burnout and other related symptoms such as neurotic symptoms. Our aim was to examine this topic by assessing burnout and neurotic symptoms as well as strategies of coping with stress experienced during each year of studies. Method: We used a web-based questionnaire, consisting of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and Symptom Checklist S-III, and invited medical students at various stages of a 6-year medical course to fill it in online. Questionnaire was filled by 781 students in total. Results: Statistical analysis revealed an interesting pattern of symptoms severity in students, with highest scores at the beginning and at the end of the medical course and the lowest score during the 3rd year of studies. This pattern was clearly visible for MBI-SS Exhaustion, and somewhat less pronounced for MBI-SS Cynicism and S-III scores, where only the decrease of symptoms was significant. Coping strategies seemed to be similar for all medical students with a higher score for the Distraction scale among the 3rd - year students compared with the 2nd-year students. Discussion: These results, however unexpected, seem to be consistent with available literature, emphasizing higher levels of stress experienced during great changes regarding expectations in students at the beginning of their course and in soon-to-be doctors. Conclusions: The results prompt to reflect on ways of countering emerging symptoms of burnout not only in experienced students, but also among those starting medical college