World Health Organization now considers ‘burnout’ a condition – New York Post

The process of crashing under the pressure of a heavy workload just got some validation.

Work “burnout syndrome” has been recognized for the first time as an official medical diagnosis by the World Health Organization.

The increasingly common work-life balance buzzword was included Saturday in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is widely used as a benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers.

“Burnout refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life,” according to the new designation.

The decision to list burnout — reached during the World Health Assembly in Geneva, which concludes Tuesday — puts an end to more than four decades of debate among experts over how to define the stress disorder.

WHO’s 11th edition of the ICD, which catalogues diseases and illnesses spanning the globe, defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

WHO also lists three characteristics of burnout syndrome:

1. 1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
   2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job.
   3. Reduced professional efficacy.

While this is the first time the ICD has formally recognized burnout as a medical condition, many were already well aware the ailment is widespread — including in the medical field, where it has a profound impact on some doctors’ will to live.