Disturbi psichiatrici e patogenesi lavorativa:osservazioni sull'epidemiologia del mobbing

The relationship between work demands and psychiatric disturbances represents an emerging topic in the contemporary psychiatry. The phenomenon of mobbing (bullying at work), in this regard, acquires the value of a more significant life-event-stressor,till to becomes the paradigm of the pathogenic influence that work organizational and interpersonal characteristics have on the mental health. Many studies have underlined the prevalence and the epidemiological features of mobbing using self-administered questionnaires and have considered the bullying at work as an on/off phenomenon. Objective To evaluate psychiatric pathologies among the workers subjected to bullying at work and to examine the pathogenic relationship between bullying at work and psychiatric features Methods Data are from 733 subjects referred to the “Work Psychopathology Medical Centre” of ASL Naples 1, from Janury 2000 to December 2005. Each subject was included in a clinical trial in order to make a diagnosis meeting the DSM IV criteria. In order to measure the level of pathogenic degree of this phenomenon, we have introduced an ordinal scale to grade the correlation between bullying at work and psychopathological profile. Moreover, we have selected two groups, with the highest and the lowest degree of working pathogenesis, and the influence of age, gender, level of education, work sector was also evaluated. Statistical analysis was carried out in order to study the correlation between diagnoses and working pathogenesis. Results Adjustment Disorders, Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders were the more frequent diagnoses. Male sex, high education level, high working level, depression and adjustment disorders were the more frequent demographic and clinical variables related to the highest working pathogenesis degree.