ReviewBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)2022
Should Burnout Be Conceptualized as a Mental Disorder?
Review in Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The relationship between colleagues' social support and burnout: a scoping review of quantitative research.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and associated factors of burnout among health sciences students in Spain: a systematic review.Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy · 2025Pooled it
- Chronic stress in relation to clinical burnout: an integrative scoping review of definitions and measurement approaches.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological and social factors associated with mental health of European dual career athletes: A systematic review.European journal of sport science · 2024Pooled it
- Association between physical activity and burnout among healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Factor Structure and Validity of the Burnout Assessment for Developmental Disability Settings (BADDS).Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- The "Twilight Zone" Is a Danger Zone: Why the Occupational-Clinical Divide in Burnout Assessment Is a False Dichotomy.Evaluation & the health professions · 2026Article
- Burnout Among Emergency Medical Technician Students and Practising Professionals in Madrid, Spain: A Cross-Sectional Study on Healthcare Workforce Sustainability.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A review of the portrayal of the medical doctor stereotype on television in english speaking countries (1954-present).Irish journal of medical science · 2026Review
- Obstacles, Self-Efficacy, and Strategies for Returning to Work after Experiencing Burnout: Paving the Path to Sustainable Reintegration.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Validity Evidence for the Secondary Symptoms of the Burnout Assessment Tool: A Brazilian Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Teacher Well-Being and Burnout Resilience: Dimensional Independence, Pandemic Burden, and Profile Analysis in Primary Education.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Systematic review and conceptualisation of disaffection for its accompaniment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- RESCUE- expected usefulness and willingness to participate in a trauma-informed group intervention for coping with traumatic work experiences in the emergency medical services.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Proof-of-concept of bayesian latent class modelling usefulness for assessing diagnostic tests in absence of diagnostic standards in mental health.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Burnout as breakdown of one's existence in the world.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Evaluating an Autistic Burnout Measurement in Women.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- COVID-19 in Rural Ontario Communities: Exploring Women's Mental Health During a Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Exhaustion Disorder in Primary Care: A Comparison With Major Depressive Disorder and Adjustment Disorder.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- Exploring the use of mindfulness for prevention of burnout in allied health professionals in Singapore.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Burnout is generally acknowledged by researchers, clinicians, and the public as a pervasive occupational difficulty. Despite this widespread recognition, longstanding debates remain within the scientific community regarding its definition and the appropriateness of classifying burnout as its own pathological entity. The current review seeks to address whether burnout should (or could) be characterized as a distinctive mental disorder to shed light on this debate. After briefly reviewing the history, theoretical underpinnings, and measurement of burnout, we more systematically consider the current evidence for and against its classification as a mental disorder within existing diagnostic systems. Stemming from a lack of conceptual clarity, the current state of burnout research remains, unfortunately, largely circular and riddled with measurement issues. As a result, information regarding the unique biopsychosocial etiology, diagnostic features, differential diagnostic criteria, and prevalence rates of burnout are still lacking. Therefore, we conclude that it would be inappropriate, if not premature, to introduce burnout as a distinct mental disorder within any existing diagnostic classification system. We argue, however, that it would be equally premature to discard burnout as a psychologically relevant phenomenon and that current evidence does support its relevance as an important occupational syndrome. We finally offer several avenues for future research, calling for cross-national collaboration to clarify conceptual and measurement issues while avoiding the reification of outdated definitions. In doing so, we hope that it one day becomes possible to more systematically re-assess the relevance of burnout as a distinctive diagnostic category.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.