Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective Exploring the changes in brain morphology of nurses in burnout group and control group to analyze the correlation between different brain areas and burnout scale scores, and explore job burnout whether the nurse has abnormal changes in brain morphology. Methods 30 burnout nurses and 29 burnout-free nurses with matching age, nursing age, gender and education years were selected for resting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Results Compared with the control group, the brain areas with increased gray matter volume in the burnout group included the left upper orbital frontal gyrus, the left orbital middle frontal gyrus, and the right middle frontal gyrus; the brain areas with reduced gray matter volume were on the right Cerebellum 1, 2, and 8 areas. (GRF correction, single voxel P<0.001, after correction P<0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between the changes in gray matter volume and the scores of each dimension of the Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) (P>0.05). Conclusion The gray matter volume of some brain areas of burnout nurses changed, suggesting that burnout nurses may have atrophy or hyperplasia of cerebral cortex function area.

Job burnout; nurse; gray matter volume; magnetic resonance imaging