Possible association between phantom vibration syndrome and occupational burnout.
BACKGROUND
Phantom vibration syndrome (PVS) and phantom ringing syndrome (PRS) occur in many cell phone users. Previous studies have indicated an association between PVS/PRS and job stress. The aim of this study was to determine if PVS/PRS were also associated with occupational burnout.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of 384 employees of a high-tech company in northern Taiwan. They all completed a phantom vibration and ringing questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Chinese version of the Occupational Burnout Inventory.


RESULTS
Significantly more women and people with at least a college education were in the population with PRS and PVS, respectively. Anxiety and depression had no associations with PVS/PRS. Higher scores for personal fatigue, job fatigue, and service target fatigue had an independent impact on the presence of PVS, but only a higher score for service target fatigue had an independent impact on the presence of PRS.


CONCLUSIONS
The independent association between work-related burnout and PVS/PRS suggests that PVS/PRS may be a harbinger of mental stress or a component of the clinical burnout syndrome, and may even be a more convenient and accurate predictor of occupational burnout.
Department of Education, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
Chao-Pen
CP
Chen
Department of Family Medicine, Min-Sheng General Hospital, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
Chi-Cheng
CC
Wu
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University, College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Li-Ren
LR
Chang
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yu-Hsuan
YH
Lin
occupational burnout; phantom ringing syndrome; phantom vibration syndrome