[Mental distress, psychoactive drug use and psychosomatic disorders in two groups of subjects at high risk for the burnout syndrome].

This paper discusses the problem whether burnout is an evidence of a psychological distress subsequently resulting in a clear psychiatric disorder or can be deemed an already well-defined psychiatric syndrome. The aim of this study was: 1) To assess the frequency of psychological distress in two groups of subjects at high risk for burnout; such perceived psychological distress was self-rated as anxiety, depression or impulse dyscontrol by the subjects. 2) To evaluate whether subjects reporting anxiety, depression or impulse dyscontrol showed an higher emotional and mental exhaustion (EME); EME was intended as a marker of burnout. 3) To investigate relationships between self-reported psychoactive drug use or psychosomatic disorders and levels of EME score. 109 air traffic controllers (ATC) and 88 health service professionals (HSP) were given a questionnaire, the Rome burnout inventory (RBI) developed as an easy-to-administer, easy-to-complete self-rating tool to be filled out during breaks in working environments. RBI assessed: a) EME; b) physical exhaustion; c) social support by components of the social network; d) work- and non-work-related stressors; e) self-reported psychosomatic disorders and perceived psychological distress in terms of anxiety, depression, impulse dyscontrol; f) psychoactive drug use. EME was positively related to years in office and was higher in ATC independently from the different seniority between professional groups. By using a factorial ANOVA, subjects with self-reported psychological distress (anxiety, depression, impulse dyscontrol) showed higher levels of the EME score although these levels were not higher in individuals reporting psychoactive drug intake. These findings were the same in both the professional groups. Psychosomatic disorders were significantly more frequent in ATC (chi 2 with Yates' correction); this is likely to be due to an higher overall level of EME score in ATC but ATC and HSP with self-reported psychosomatic disorders did not show higher levels of EME score. There was a different way to refer to perceived psychological distress in the two professional groups. ATC mainly emphasized the role of impulse dyscontrol as a way to express the subjective feelings of an augmenting distress. Otherwise, HSP seemed to stress depression as the proper descriptor of their own psychological distress.