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Physician burnout, a new term, a well-known concept in the medieval era: a thematic review of Ruhawi’s Adab al-Tabib

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2019

S. Sadeghi Open the ORCID record for S. Sadeghi [Opens in a new window] ,
F. Ghaffari ,
M-R. Sohrabi  and
G. Heydarirad
S. Sadeghi
Affiliation:
Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
F. Ghaffari
Affiliation:
Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
M-R. Sohrabi
Affiliation:
Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Community Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
G. Heydarirad*
Affiliation:
Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
*
*Address for correspondence: Ghazaleh Heydarirad, Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, No.8 Shams Alley, Vali-e-Asr Street, Tehran, Iran. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

In 1974, Herbert Freudenberger introduced the phrase ‘Burnout in Healing Professional Workers’. Despite the existence of numerous investigations on physician burnout, only a few studies on its historical aspects can be found. This is the first research to present historical evidence on ‘physician burnout’ as pointed out in the book ‘Adab al-Tabib’ written by Ruhawi (9th century AD). He is shown to have an understanding of this concept by talking about job stress in his book, although he offers no exact equivalent definition for this state. In fact, finding an equivalent term to 20th century burnout in a book written a thousand years ago is almost impossible. Most interestingly, the same preventive strategies for physician burnout and its causes as those scientifically discovered in recent years can be evidenced to have been introduced by Ruhawi. Hence, ‘Adab al-Tabib’ is an outstanding work on physician burnout in the medieval era.

Keywords

Adab al-TabibIshaq ibn Ali al-RuhawiIslamic golden agesmedical historyphysician burnout
Type
Perspective Piece
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 398 - 405
Copyright
© College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 2019

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