EDITORIAL

Work related disorders

Occupational medicine at a turning point

D Coggon

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Prof. D Coggon
MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; dnc@mrc.soton.ac.uk

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A new approach needed

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Keywords: occupational medicine; hypothesis; work related disorder; stress

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

With the successful control of many of the most serious occupational hazards to health, the focus of occupational medicine in developed countries has shifted to other work related disorders that are rarely fatal but cause substantial disability. This paper hypothesises that many of these disorders do not arise from detectable organic pathology, but rather are a psychologically mediated response to triggering exposures that is conditioned by individual characteristics and cultural circumstances. If correct, this has important implications for the way in which such illness should be managed and prevented. Proposals are made for ways in which the hypothesis could be tested.

Occupational medicine first emerged as a specialist discipline in response to chemical, physical, and biological hazards that caused serious and often fatal disease. A framework was developed for the management of such hazards that entailed assessment of the relation between exposure and risk; reduction of exposure . . . [Full text of this article]

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