Burnout, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in Turkish neurology residency: A cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the mental health status of neurology residents in Türkiye and identify contributing factors, with the goal of enhancing the quality of neurology training.

Patients and methods: A web-based, multiple-choice survey was designed by a study-group of the Turkish Society of Neurology. Neurology residents throughout Türkiye were invited to participate via email between October 2023 and May 2024. The questionnaire gathered data on demographics, institutional characteristics, educational activities, and working conditions. Mental health and job satisfaction were evaluated using the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Depression Inventory.

Results: A total of 226 neurology residents (135 females, 91 males; median age: 28 years; range, 25 to 47 years) who completed the online survey were included in the analysis. Participants reported a median of 55 working hours per week, with approximately 10% of this time dedicated to educational activities. Symptoms of depression were present in 64.6% of respondents, while anxiety affected 72.1%. Burnout symptoms were identified in 97.3% of participants, and 46.5% met criteria for burnout. Weekly working hours and time allocated for research and education were positively associated with job satisfaction, yet inversely correlated with burnout, depression, and anxiety. Exploratory factor analysis revealed six principal components influencing burnout and job satisfaction: weekly working hours, time allocated for education, confidence in personal competency, adequacy of clinical equipment, time spent on research, and sociodemographic characteristics (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin: 0.64; cumulative explained variance: 69.02%).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated a high prevalence of burnout, depressive symptoms, and anxiety among neurology residents in Türkiye. Targeted interventions such as the reduction of daily clinical workload and the expansion of protected time for academic activities may be warranted to mitigate these adverse psychological outcomes and promote professional well-being.

Cite this article as: Arslan İ, Arslan D, Ayvacıoğlu Çağan C, Kılboz BB, Saltoğlu T, Topçuoğlu MA. Burnout, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in Turkish neurology residency: A cross-sectional analysis. Turk J Neurol 2026;32(2):145-154. https://doi.org/10.55697/tnd.2026.576.

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

İ.A., C.A.Ç.: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, writing-original draft, review & editing; D.A.: Data curation, formal analysis, visualization, investigation, writing-original draft, review & editing; B.B.K.: Conceptualization, methodology, software, investigation; T.S.: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation; M.A.T.: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation writing-original draft, writing-review & editing.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/ or publication of this article.

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

The authors declare that artificial intelligence (AI) tools were not used, or were used solely for language editing, and had no role in data analysis, interpretation, or the formulation of conclusions. All scientific content, data interpretation, and conclusions are the sole responsibility of the authors. The authors further confirm that AI tools were not used to generate, fabricate, or ‘hallucinate’ references, and that all references have been carefully verified for accuracy.