There is no consensus on whether burnout constitutes a depressive condition or an original entity requiring specific medical and legal recognition. In this study, we examined burnout–depression overlap using 14 samples of individuals from various countries and occupational domains (N = 12,417). Meta-analytically pooled disattenuated correlations indicated (a) that exhaustion—burnout’s core—is more closely associated with depressive symptoms than with the other putative dimensions of burnout (detachment and efficacy) and (b) that the exhaustion–depression association is problematically strong from a discriminant validity standpoint (r = .80). The overlap of burnout’s core dimension with depression was further illuminated in 14 exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analyses. Given their consistency across countries, languages, occupations, measures, and methods, our results offer a solid base of evidence in support of the view that burnout problematically overlaps with depression. We conclude by outlining avenues of research that depart from the use of the burnout construct.

对于倦怠是否构成抑郁症或需要特定医学和法律认可的原始实体，尚无共识。在这项研究中，我们使用14个来自不同国家和职业领域的个体样本研究了倦怠与抑郁的重叠（N = 12,417）。荟萃分析汇总的衰减相关性表明：（a）倦怠是工作倦怠的核心，它与抑郁症状的相关性比其他假定的倦怠维度（分离和功效）更紧密；并且（b）疲倦与抑郁的联系存在问题一个区别效度的观点来看（ř= .80）。在14个探索性结构方程建模双因素分析中，进一步阐明了倦怠的核心维度与凹陷的重叠。鉴于它们在国家，语言，职业，措施和方法之间的一致性，我们的结果提供了坚实的证据基础，支持了倦怠问题与抑郁症重叠的观点。最后，我们概述了不同于使用倦怠结构的研究途径。