Fatigue, anxietyirritability, digestive disorders, insomniaphysical pain, increased heart rate… very different symptoms to characterize the same ailment: the burn out. This syndrome is the subject of a bill aimed at recognizing it as an “occupational disease”, examined today in the National Assembly. But before considering such a classification, themedical academyconsiders that this pathology must be clearly defined. Because, for the moment, the term burnout brings together different disorders, which makes its diagnosis difficult. “The expansion of the term burn out is confusing due to the unclear boundaries of this reality” writes the Academy of Medicine in a report published on February 16, 2016, led by Professor Jean-Pierre Olié and Doctor Patrick Légeron, psychiatrists. These specialists emphasize in this report that the symptoms of burnout “part of depressive disorders and adjustment disorders“.
Distinguish between illness and disease
The Academy of Medicine thus wishes that a distinction be made between fatigue or malaise and real emotional pathology. Only the latter can give rise to drug treatment. But to properly differentiate and identify these disorders, doctors should establish a precise criteria grid: “priority must be given to so-called social illnesses (somatic and psychic complications of stress) in the training programs of medical students and the continuous professional development of health professionals“says the report.
At present, in France, the Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS) estimates that 480,000 the number of employees suffering from burnout.
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