[There is plethora of international publications on the topic of burnout among health professionals. The most comprehensive study in Hungarian on this issue was written fifteen years ago by psychiatrist Sandor Fekete. In the past fifteen years there has been a growing interest among both the scientific community and the public in studies on health psychology, behavioural sciences, sociology of health and quality of life as well as in the harmful effects of work stress. The first part of the study presents clarification of the concept of burnout, its development, course, assessment and treatment, whereas the second part gives a brief overview of the history of burnout research in the past thirty years with special focus on the most recent international and Hungarian literature, as well as on changes in research trends.]