The risk of psychological disorders influencing the health of workers increases in accordance with growing requirements on employees across various professions. This study aimed to compare approaches to the burnout syndrome in European countries. A questionnaire focusing on stress-related occupational diseases was distributed to national experts of 28 European Union countries. A total of 23 countries responded. In 9 countries (Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden) burnout syndrome may be acknowledged as an occupational disease. Latvia has burnout syndrome explicitly included on the List of ODs. Compensation for burnout syndrome has been awarded in Denmark, France, Latvia, Portugal and Sweden. Only in 39% of the countries a possibility to acknowledge burnout syndrome as an occupational disease exists, with most of compensated cases only occurring in recent years. New systems to collect data on suspected cases have been developed reflecting the growing recognition of the impact of the psychosocial work environment. In agreement with the EU legislation, all EU countries in the study have an action plan to prevent stress at the workplace.

Centre of Occupational and Environmental Health University of Manchester United Kingdom

Department of Health Sciences of the University of Milano and International Centre for Rural Health of the San Paolo Hospital Italy

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty of Health Sciences Palacky University Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Occupational Medicine 1st Medical Faculty Charles University Prague and General University Hospital Prague Czech Republic

Department of Occupational Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Medical Faculty of P J Šafarik University and University hospital of Louis Pasteur Slovakia

Functional Impairment Department Swedish Social Insurance Agency Sweden

Institute of Occupational Health University of Paris Est Créteil France

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Department for Occupational Safety and Health Finland

National Board of Industrial Injuries Department of Statistics Denmark

Netherlands Centre for Occupational Diseases Department Coronel Institute of Occupational Health Academic Medical Center The Netherlands

Occupational Environmental Medicine Department of Medical Sciences Uppsala University Sweden

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