The researchers said that a fear of the workplace and the accompanying problems are not merely a fabrication of the neurotic mind, it is altogether a separate condition that doctors must be dealing with.

The team suggests that work-related phobia is an anxiety disorder, but it is different as it can arise in people who do not experience general anxiety disorders.

Prof Michael Linden, a clinical psychologist in Berlin who led the research, estimated that one in every two workers on long-term sick leave would be exhibiting symptoms of work-related anxiety.

"Like other forms of anxiety, job-anxieties can present in the form of panic, hypochondriac fears, work-related worrying, post-traumatic stress, or work-related social anxieties,” the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

"Anxiety can lead to avoidance. Job anxiety can therefore be one explanation for sick leave, work absenteeism, or early retirement. Job-anxieties, therefore, must be considered as expensive problems,” he added.

Prof Linden will present his findings next week at the World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicine, in Quebec City.

Source-ANI
JAY/B