Background: Compassion-fatigue is a condition which therapists are forced into as a consequence of the nature of their work. The phenomenon has historically, and to some extent currently, been described as secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress and burnout. The goal of this paper is to bring clarity as to what the phenomenon is and how it has been used in research, how common it is, what factors have been identified in the research that increase or decrease risk of developing it and lastly if any attempts have been made to develop a specific approach in preventing and/or treating the condition. Method: This current paper is a scoping review with a systematic approach.12 published studies, quantitative and qualitative in nature, were included and passed for review. Results: The result of the review indicates a deficit in data regarding prevalence of the phenomenon in the population and a general lack of randomized and experimental data. Most of the published studies were exploring psychologist experiences and secondarily attempting to identify factors predicting the development of compassion-fatigue. In conclusion, the phenomenon, regardless of what term is used, seems to be clearly delineated from conditions more akin to exhaustion and depression. Discussion: According to this study compassion-fatigue seems to be a condition that is sparked by the extraneous use of one’s empathic abilities past a tolerable point. Increased exposure by psychologists to work with patients with trauma may increase the risk of developing compassion-fatigue. It is still unknown what the mechanisms are that causes the condition and its prevalence among the population and further research, preferably randomized and experimental with comparison groups, is needed in order for this area to be fully mapped and explained.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-121285 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Özberk, Ufuk, Jacobsson, Julia |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för psykologi (PSY) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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