The World Health Organization has for the first time recognised “burn-out” in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) which is widely used as a benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers.
In the latest update of its catalogue of diseases and injuries around the world, WHO defines burn-out as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”.
It said the syndrome was characterised by three dimensions.
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.
The ICD-11, which is to take effect in January 2022, contains several other additions, including classification of “compulsive sexual behaviour” as a mental disorder, although it stops short of lumping the condition together with addictive behaviours.
It does, however, for the first time recognise video gaming as an addiction, listing it alongside gambling and drugs like cocaine. The updated list removes transgenderism from its list of mental disorders meanwhile, listing it instead under the chapter on “conditions related to sexual health”.
WHO
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.
- It was established on 7 April 1948, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organisation, was an agency of the League of Nations.
- The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day. The current Director-General of the WHO is Tedros Adhanom, who started his five-year term on 1 July 2017.
