Context specificity in the assessment of psychosocial risk at work: an empirical study on Italian call centre workers.

Background: Following EU requirements, in recent years standard procedures for the assessment of work-related stress have been developed in Italy. However, while such standardization has facilitated the spread and use of these procedures, it has brought a lack of specificity in risk assessment.

Objectives: To exemplify a method for the assessment of work-related stress that was developed by the University of Milan to allow the definition of risk profiles tailored to the different organizational settings.

[Burnout: survey of the literature].

Background: Past clinical research has provided varied and sometimes diverging descriptions of burnout.

Objectives: As burnout is still prevalent in today's workplaces, actions are required mainly at the primary but also at the secondary and tertiary levels of prevention.

Methods: In this literature review, the concept of burnout is reread through the lens of positive psychology and the most established theoretical models in the field.

[Demand of diagnosis and treatment for work-related psycho-social discomfort: trend of phenomenon].

This study is aimed at updating the knowledge on case records of workers examined at the "Center for Occupational Stress and Harassment" of the "Clinica del Lavoro Luigi Devoto" in Milan. A sample of patients examined between 2009 and 2011 (n = 198) was compared with a sample examined in 2003 (n = 226). Compared to the past case records, the latter sample included a significantly higher number of graduates (chi2 = 6.

[Psychosocial risks in the health care sector: foreword].

In the introduction to the section devoted to the psychosocial risk in the health care sector and their evaluation an attempt is made to trace a road from texts reporting experiences with objective and subjective diagnostic instruments and the necessity of their integration, to specific applications in contexts of psychological disturbances and the development of training and prevention programs. Their applicability in the real context of health care realities on the basis of actual norms and regulations is also considered. The series is closed by the last contribution supporting the idea that the workers wellbeing must be constructed not only by structuring their work in terms of well organized activities but primarily activities which can give sense to the operators worklife as well.

[Prevention of psychosocial issues and drug addiction in workers employed in building great infrastructures: first outcomes of an experience in the Florence area].

The research on stress, mobbing, and substance dependence in workers employed in the building of the great infrastructures is part of the project Euridice-Ten. The 75% of the workers employed took part in the research through an anonymous and structured questionnaire. The Clinica del Lavoro of the University of Milan elaborated the data.

[Clinical approach to workers occupationally exposed to negative stress by the occupational health physician].

Following the activation of new norms requiring that all occupational risks including psychosocial risks be evaluated and prevention programs activated, the occupational physician is now faced with new tasks and is expected to modify his role and function. Care and monitoring of stressed workers demand a higher participation in and an adaptation to the different ways in which stress shows up and has consequences on workers health and wellbeing. A subjects suffering of a stress-related disorder asks for a prompt solution be it medical or a job reorganization intervention in order to guarantee the prosecution of his job while the burnout affected subject rather points to leave the situation, to move to another responsibility or no responsibility even when this means abandoning a life choice.

[Modality of individual response to stress ].

"Stress is a state which is accompanied by physical, psychological or social complaints or dysfunctions and which results from individuals feeling unable to bridge the gap with the requirements or expectations placed on them...

[Updating in occupational health for health care workers].

The board of the Thematic Section on Preventive Medicine for Health Care Workers of the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene (SIMLII) programmed a national conference on occupational risks of health care workers to be held in late 2009. Main topics will be: a) biohazards; b) biomechanical risk; c) psychosocial factors. Three different working groups were established to tackle critical aspects and suggest practical recommendations to occupational health professionals.

[Risk assessment method for psychosocial factors at workplace: a North-West Tuscany area project].

The rising awareness of psychosocial risks at workplace means that it is ever more important to prepare methods to assess psychosocial factors in occupational environment. This project of north west tuscany area has the aim to realize an instrument for a gradual risk assessment for this kind of factors without the support of specialists. A decisional flow chart helps to approach the risk assessment step by step on the basis of company features, management and organization problems and company symptoms of stress.

[Alcohol and disadaptive behavioural responses].

Background And Objectives: The knowledge of heavy drinking and dependence on working behaviour is known and reflect the general community opinion and therefore is known in its more general and/or extreme manifestations (weekend deaths, dementia, polineuropathies). Less known and rarely measured are alcohol effects in heavy drinkers who have a high level of tolerance and only show manifestations which for a long time can be considered normal or seen as subjective peculiarities.

Discussion And Conclusions: It is only in presence of serious accidents or dependence reactions that the drinking habit becomes evident.

[Mobbing and its effects on health. the experience of the "Clinica del Lavoro Luigi Devoto" in Milan].

Background: There is increasing interest in research, prevention and management of mobbing in the field of occupational psychosocial risks.

Objectives: To describe mobbing and its health effects by analysis of the cases examined from 1997 to 2003 at the Department of Occupational Health "Clinica del Lavoro Luigi Devoto" in Milan.

Methods: A total of 226 clinical records of patients who reported a mobbing situation when undergoing medical examination were selected out of 2455 patients examined for stress-related disorders.

Emerging aspects of psychosocial risks: violence and harassment at work.

In the last twenty years, psychosocial risks have become crucial in Occupational Health. Particularly, there is an increasing interest about psychological and physical violence at the workplaces. Psychological violence (mobbing or workplace bullying) is described as a situation in which the person has been the victim of negative acts directed to the person and work, with offences, discriminations and isolation.

[Questionnaire for the mobbing risk: CDL2.0].

The aim of the study is to develop and validate a questionnaire able to evaluate the risk of mobbing at the workplace. A multiple-choice questionnaire has been developed which contains, among the different items, only one revealing a mobbing situation. The questionnaire has been administered to two groups (group A--243 subjects in a mobbing situation and group B--63 subjects without exposure to mobbing) and the differences in the scores obtained have been analysed.

[Dysfunctional workplace organization and mobbing. 4 representative cases].

Background: Stress and psychological harassment at work are increasing worldwide, according to International Agencies (European Community, NIOSH) and to most authors.

Objectives: To describe typical working situations responsible for distress and mobbing, with the aim of early diagnosis and effectiveness of therapy and rehabilitation.

Methods: Four cases are reported as representative of dysfunctional organization producing distress and pathology or inducing mobbing behavior or mobbing without clear organization responsibilities.

[Emerging aspects of occupational stress].

Work stress is caused by excessive demands which foster individuals to give prompt cognitive and behavioral answers. When these solicitations exceed the possibilities of the subject to comply, non-physiological reactions may follow, including emotional, neurovegetative and behavioral changes. If adverse stimuli persist, transient alterations form syndromes such as depression, phobic syndromes, anxiety syndromes, hypertension, heart disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, and so on.

[Mobbing in the workplace: new aspects of an old phenomenon].

In the last ten years there has been increasing concern about the well known old practice of victimization at work, which in recent years has emerged with new characteristics, aims and consequences and is now generally referred to as mobbing behavior. This increased attention seems to be due to increased awareness of individual rights and respect for the dignity of self and others, and to the new economy emphasis on flexibility and reorganizational needs. Moral violence should not be confused with the normal competition and conflicts encountered in work place.

Mapping to distal Xq28 of nonspecific X-linked mental retardation MRX72: linkage analysis and clinical findings in a three-generation Sardinian family.

Families with mentally retarded males found to be negative for FRAXA and FRAXE mutations are useful in understanding the genetic basis of X-linked mental retardation. According to the most recent data (updated to 1999), 69 MRX loci have been mapped and 6 genes cloned. Here we report on a linkage study performed on 20 subjects from a 4-generation Sardinian family segregating a non-specific X-linked recessive mental retardation (XLMR)(MRX72) associated with global delay of all psychomotor development.

Neurobehavioral functions in operating theatre personnel: a multicenter study.

The study was conducted to evaluate neuropsychological symptoms, subjective stress and response speed functions in subjects occupationally exposed to low levels of anesthetic gases. A group of 112 operating theatre personnel exposed to anesthetic gases (nitrous oxide and isoflurane), and 135 non exposed hospital workers from 10 hospitals in Northern Italy were examined before and after the shift on the first and the last day of the working week. Three different tasks were administered: a complex reaction time test (the Stroop Color Word); a questionnaire for neuropsychological symptoms (EURO-QUEST); the block design subtest (WAIS).

An international questionnaire to explore neurotoxic symptoms.

EURONEST (European Neurotoxic Solvents Toxicity) is a concerted action within the European Communities to use standardized methods available in all countries. The product of this effort is a new symptom questionnaire, EUROQUEST (European Questionnaire). The original version was developed in English.

Carbon disulfide and the central nervous system: a 15-year neurobehavioral surveillance of an exposed population.

Carbon disulfide-induced neurobehavioral effects are well known and do not need further evidence. Carbon disulfide vasculopathy and the syndromic complex resulting in depression, loss of memory and concentration, and behavior disturbances have been widely demonstrated. Less known is the evolution of the symptomatology when the environmental conditions are consistently improved, that is, the reversibility or the progression of the dysfunctions observed.

Comparison of performance from three continents on the WHO-Recommended Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery.

To address the need for standardized test batteries, an expert group convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health during 1983 proposed the Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery (NCTB) to identify nervous system effects of chemical exposures in human populations worldwide.

Prevalence of abnormal neurobehavioral scores in populations exposed to different industrial chemicals.

The aim of the study is to establish the prevalence of neurobehavioral scores of occupationally exposed subjects below the 10th percentile rank of normalized curves obtained on a referent population. The Milan Automated Neurobehavioral System (MANS) was administered to 400 drivers from public and private firms; their data were distributed on the basis of age and years of school attendance and were normalized by determining percentile rank equivalence. The exposed population is made up of 20 lead- and zinc-exposed subjects, 18 welders exposed to aluminum for less than 1 year, 150 exposed to different metals in the ferromanganese production, 73 lithographic operators exposed to gasoline and petroleum, 197 exposed to solvents mixtures in the paint manufacture, and 23 dropouts of the same firm.

Individual-administered human behavioral test batteries to identify neurotoxic chemicals.

Most research demonstrating behavioral effects of occupational chemical exposures is produced in established laboratories using a consistent set or battery of tests. Exemplifying this tradition are batteries developed at Finland's Institute of Occupational Health, Milan's Institute of Occupational Health, Sweden's National Institute of Occupational Health, Australia's National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and at universities in the United States and other countries. In 1983, under the World Health Organization (WHO) aegis, experienced human occupational researchers recommended the Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery (NCTB) as a screening instrument to be administered by an individual to subjects exposed to chemicals believed to be neurotoxic.