Is Burnout a Medical Diagnosis? (Part I)

Self-Care Series - Excerpt

Here is an overview of my initial findings:

1) The world cannot agree on the medicalization, epidemiology, and treatment of burnout, despite the progress in the conceptualization of burnout by the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Medical Association (AMA), and Maslach (who created the Maslach Burnout Inventory or MBI).

2) The medicalization vs. over-medicalization debate is convoluted due to risks and opportunities in the areas of economic, political, cultural, and physiological. Bioethics and biopolitics identify pharmaceuticals and a negative workplace environment as having high stakes in the game.

3) There is global urgency to help support workers in the public service sector.

4) There are far more factors at play than meets the eye in determining the epidemiology of burnout

5) Burnout continues to be a medical-cultural controversy