title: [Burnout: survey of the literature].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Past clinical research has provided varied and sometimes diverging descriptions of burnout.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A common view is seemingly emerging that characterizes burnout as a condition of alienation, loss of motivation and low autonomy resulting from an unbridgeable gap in the personal and/or organizational resources that one has to invest in building a stimulating and rewarding professional career, full of significant relationships that give meaningfulness to one's life project.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Establishing clinical criteria for burnout, as it is the case in some European countries, couldfacilitate the identification of the syndrome and the estimation of its prevalence in Italian work organizations.
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Camerino
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Cassitto
authors.forename: Maria Chiara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gugiari
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Conway
mesh_terms: D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D003625:Data Collection; D005060:Europe; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D009042:Motivation; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D015995:Prevalence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology