A meta-analysis of burnout and suicidal ideation among medical professionals: Insights on occupational vulnerabilities

We assess whether the amount of experienced burnout and its relation to suicidal ideation differs between medical professionals and non-medical professionals. In December 2023, we performed searches in EBSCO, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ProQuest. We used a random effects samples-size weighted approach for our meta-analysis of 92 sources. Our meta-regressions did not identify a statistically significant difference between medical professionals and non-medical professionals in their mean levels of the burnout dimensions (all <i>p</i> &gt; .05). Our meta-regressions did not identify a significant difference in the relation of burnout and suicidal ideation between medical professionals and non-medical professionals (<i>β</i> = −0.06, <i>S.E.</i> = .05, <i>95%C.I.</i> [−0.15, .03], <i>p</i> = .21, <i>k</i> = 53, <i>n</i> = 68,454), and similar results were found for all burnout dimensions (all <i>p</i> &gt; .05). Our results suggest that burnout is no more important for medical professionals than non-medical professionals.