Is Today's 21st Century Burnout 19th Century's Neurasthenia?

2019/08/29 by Don R. Lipsitt · 1 citation
Health Professions · Medicine · #Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout #Empathy and Medical Education #Innovations in Medical Education

paper · doi:10.1097/nmd.0000000000001014

openalex publication_date 2019/08/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

This essay addresses the relevance of the concept of "burnout" to concerns about the mental and physical health of today's physicians and those training to join the medical profession. Comparisons are made with the diagnosis of neurasthenia in the 19th century. Social contributors to and the influence of stress on the phenomena in each instance are presented.

Citations

• Social Support as a Moderator of Life Stress
• Brain on stress: How the social environment gets under the skin
• Staff Burn‐Out
• Physician Burnout—A Serious Symptom, But of What?

Cited by

• Occupational burnout [wikipedia]

Related

• Neurasthenia, or Nervous Exhaustion
• 2394 – Burnout is a Myth
• Burnout: half a century of controversy
• Da neurastenia ao estresse: notas para uma história das doenças nervosas
• Burnout: modeling, measuring, and managing