About half of physicians report feeling burned out

Reported rates of burnout by occupation

Burnout is often considered a disorder of caregivers, with teachers, doctors, nurses, and social workers reporting high levels of burnout. Among K-12 education professionals, 44% reported experiencing burnout in 2022.

Roughly 45% of clinicians in 2023 reported at least one symptom of burnout

With that kind of statistic as a backdrop, proponents of concierge medicine practices argue that concierge services could help keep doctors in medicine and thus help to address physician shortages.

Clinical burnout: prolonged exhaustion, mental distance, and persistent negative feelings

Burnout isn’t just stress—it’s a pervasive feeling of exhaustion that can start in the workplace and seep into everyday life. It causes feelings of dread and cynicism about work tasks. On top of emotional distress, there can be physical symptoms and a tendency towards addictive behavior.

One-third of early- and mid-career workers have considered quitting due to stress

In 2024, around half of all full-time employees polled by the National Alliance on Mental Illness reported experiencing burnout at their jobs. Around a third of all employees ages 18 to 49 had considered quitting their jobs due to workplace stress.

The term 'burnout' in academia dates back to 1974

Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger introduced the term to describe the mental and emotional fatigue he witnessed among volunteers at a free clinic in New York. It was widely popularized in a 1976 article by Berkeley professor Christina Maslach.

The WHO defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon

While it’s not a medical condition, the World Health Organization defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and considers it separate from general stress.

Workplace overload has spawned the industry of 'burnout coaches'

Chronic stress and burnout aren't just leading to mental-health crises. They're also the foundation of a new career type: burnout coach. These aren't necessarily licensed therapists, but often people who have been through the burnout cycle and received certification as coaches. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Links between long-term caregiving and chronic stress

This Cleveland Clinic overview suggests that around 60% of people caring for family or loved ones with health conditions will experience burnout. Caregivers prepare meals, help with transportation, administer medications, and perform daily tasks for others, all while managing their own lives. This guide may help readers overcome the guilt or frustration of long-term caregiving to seek alternative options.

How artificial intelligence, which detects patterns, can identify burnout

Researchers are training AI to detect stress-related symptoms, helping physicians and other medical workers recognize and reduce stress from overwork and potentially avoid burnout.

Listen to how medical error affected an emergency physician's approach

Emergency physician Dr. Sarah Gray discusses her worst medical error, what she learned from it, and how medical error and the culture around it lead to physician burnout. In addition to lawsuits, medical errors can lead to guilt, shame, anxiety, and fears of embarrassment, so this podcast discusses how sharing such errors and teaching about them can improve care.

Are you burned out? Take this quiz

Have you ever wondered if what you’re experiencing is burnout, or just stress? This Psychology Today quiz may help you decide if you need to explore more mental health resources. You don’t have to create an account to take the quiz. Simply answer the questions and provide your ZIP code.

Jobs that marry each other the most

Out of all married physicians, roughly one in five is married to another physician. The trend extends beyond the medical field. Some professionals are more likely to marry one another than others. Find out which jobs most often pair together among married couples with this interactive tool based on estimates from the American Community Survey. Click here to type in your profession and see your most likely match.

Women more likely than men to report strain of being a caregiver

A Pew Research Center caregiver analysis from 2026 indicates that, though men and women both say caring for aging parents improved their relationships with their parents, women are more likely than men to report that it had a negative impact on their emotional well-being and physical health.

The United States faces a sizeable teacher shortage

Teacher vacancies have surged since 2017, with each year opening more positions than hires. Educators are quitting in record numbers, citing low pay and burnout. Today, there are 567,000 fewer education professionals than before the pandemic.

Over 28% of US adults use yoga for pain management

According to a 2022 study, 28.8% of adults used yoga as a way to manage pain. That's a significant uptick from 2002, when only 11.2% did. The most used approach was chiropractic, which 85.7% used.

Hospitals have been adding weapon detection systems to emergency rooms in response to violence

Healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience violence at work than employees in other industries, according to pre-pandemic federal data. Yet, despite growing awareness of these threats, fewer than one in three hospitals have installed metal detectors.

Most US fire departments are staffed entirely by volunteers, though they tend to serve smaller communities

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 2024 registry, 70% of US fire departments are all volunteer, while 9.5% are fully staffed with paid employees. Volunteer departments are mainly found in rural and suburban areas, whereas most urban Americans are served by career or mixed departments.

Restaurants are where most of us contract food poisoning in the US

From 2014 to 2022, most reported foodborne illness cases occurred at restaurants. Between 2020 and 2022—when COVID-19 also likely influenced restaurant eating habits and tracking—there were only 238 foodborne illness outbreaks linked to restaurants, down from 714 the prior two years. Still, restaurants were behind most reported outbreak cases. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

67 US high school athletes died from exertional heatstroke between 1982 and 2022

Many of those deaths were from football specifically, where student athletes play in hot conditions while wearing heavy protective gear. Few states mandate heat guidelines for school athletes, and this article says that's of increasing concern with more high heat index days.

Obesity rates have more than doubled worldwide since 1990

In the US alone, the percentage of the population meeting the clinical standard of obesity rose from less than 20% to more than 40% over the past three decades. This rise has been matched by many countries across the globe, from industrialized to developing nations.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Musicians are 57% more likely to have tinnitus compared to the general public

Musicians have four times the risk of developing hearing loss, and their risk of developing tinnitus is increased by more than half.

Burning Man hosts roughly 70k attendees each year

Since 1986, the Burning Man organization has shared a census tracking growth, fluctuations, demographics, and burners' attitudes each year. Part of the organization's motivation is to monitor and reduce carbon emissions at the event.

Around 5% of people report memories of a near-death experience

Near-death experiences are moments reported by people who’ve come close to death, often associated with bright lights, out-of-body sensations, or encounters with otherworldly beings. While scientific research offers theories ranging from brain chemistry to psychological coping mechanisms, no single explanation fully captures the mystery of these experiences.

Americans think being informed is a priority for voting, but don't prioritize reading the news

Many Americans report feeling "news fatigue," finding much of the news they encounter irrelevant. Still, being informed is recognized as a major civic duty. Many Americans have stopped seeking out the news or are far more selective about where they receive it, and an increasing sense that its up to individuals to confirm the facts they're being told.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Autoimmune disorders are one of the top 10 killers of young and middle-aged women

Studies in the US and the UK, though conducted decades ago, have underscored that autoimmune diseases, when grouped together, are a top killer of women.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Watch the cumbersome, but necessary, precautions healthcare workers must take to care for and protect themselves while caring for Ebola patients.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Between 10 million and 50 million people in the US develop rashes from poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak each year.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.