Burnout has become a popular indicator of the distress that individuals can experience at work. In Breaking Point: Job Stress, Occupational Depression, and the Myth of Burnout, the authors, in the context of more than a decade of research, show how the phenomenon hidden behind the label of burnout is, in fact, depressive in nature. This book unravels the connections between work, depression, and burnout. The authors underline the dangers of mislabeling a depressive condition as burnout, including misdiagnosis, improper treatment, and unaddressed suicidality. Finally, they offer a path forward for individuals and society. By recognizing the depressive roots of burnout, human resources specialists and occupational health professionals can refer employees for appropriate treatment and understand how and why problematic working conditions must be changed. Review the history of depression and burnout and their connection to work Learn about research that supports occupational depression as a more valuable construct than burnout Understand and address the stigma that inhibits affected employees from seeking treatment Discover specific, research-grounded actions that occupational health specialists can take to prevent and address depression and burnout in the workplace

Table of Contents:
Foreword xi About the Authors xiii Preface xv 1 Occupational Depression 1 Brief History of Depression 1 "Depression is rage turned inward," Dr. Jennifer Melfi 5 Challenge to Freud's Explanation of Depression 6 Helplessness and Hopelessness 10 Early Linkages of Work to Psychological State 11 The Diagnosis of Depression 15 Another Way to Think About Depression 17 Assessing Depression in the Research Context 19 "The Stress of Life" 19 Stressful Life Events 21 The Demand-Control (DC) Model of Job Stress 27 A New Development: The Demand-Control-Support (DCS) Model of Job Stress 32 Reverse Causality 33 The Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model 45 Workplace Bullying 47 Underestimates 53 Conclusions 55 Postscript 56 References 57 2 Burnout 73 Herbert J. Freudenberger 74 Christina Maslach 76 Correlation Coefficients and Reliability Coefficients 78 The Foundations of Burnout 80 More on Discriminant Validity 87 Antecedents of Burnout 88 The Multiplication of Burnout Scales 89 Problems with Burnout Symptom Items That Are Synonymous 92 Burnout as a Diagnosis 93 Longitudinal Research on Adverse Working Conditions and Burnout 94 Conclusions 103 References 104 3 Burnout-Depression Overlap 111 The Idea of a Syndrome 113 First Look at Burnout-Depression Overlap 113 Burnout and Depression as Distinct Constructs 114 A Line of Research by Bianchi, Schonfeld, and Colleagues 116 Burnout and Depressive Cognition 121 Neurobiology of Burnout and Depression 123 Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms 124 The Occupational Depression Inventory 127 Other Studies That Bear on Burnout-Depression Overlap 131 Meta-analyses 133 Conclusions 137 References 141 4 The Stigma Attached to Burnout 153 Some Background Beliefs 154 What Empirical Research Indicates 155 Burnout Versus Depression 156 Destigmatizing Burnout 159 Conclusions 160 References 161 5 Interventions 165 Models of Interventions 165 Randomized Control Trials and Meta-analyses 168 Tertiary Interventions 173 Primary and Secondary Interventions for Depression, Psychological Distress, and Burnout 182 A Pertinent Primary Intervention Study 189 Conclusions 191 References 194 Appendix 203 Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) 203 Inventaire de Dépression Professionnelle (IDP) 205 Index 209