[Burnout--a new disease?]

Since Herbert Freudenbergers "Staff Burnout", published in 1974, burnout has become a synonym for psychosomatic, psychological symptoms and social consequences of a long-lasting workload exceeding an individual's capacity. Without any binding definition, the term burnout is used by patients as well as their doctors and therapists as a medical diagnosis. Described by Freudenberger from a patient's point of view, the term tries to integrate symptoms (fatigue, emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment and distancing from clients) as well as cause (job strain) of the burnout process. Thus burnout was claimed to have nothing in common with psychiatric disorders. Altogether this burnout concept is fairly plausible and attractive for people suffering from the symptoms. It also lowers the threshold to think about work related and psychosomatic problems and to look for therapeutic support. According to the criteria of modern diagnostic systems like DSM-IV and ICD-10, the attempt to integrate symptoms and causes of a psychosomatic phenomenon in a diagnosis will fail. In ICD-10 burnout only can be found as an--undefined--additional diagnostic term. Scientific data show that people suffering from burnout are a quite heterogeneous group, including people who had once been highly motivated and successful in their business as well as people feeling overworked all their lives. While burnout is not convincing as a diagnostic term, its high popularity highlights the fundamental needs and problems of a changing society, characterised by increasing work related stressors and decreasing social security.