Mobbing at Workplace - Psychological Trauma and Documentation of Psychiatric Symptoms

Abstract

Objectives: Mobbing at the workplace refers to such cases as verbal harassment, aggressive words, sarcasm, slander or social isolation repeatedly targeted at a specific person at a specific period of time.Previous studies indicate that wellness and health of the victims who have been subjected to mobbing at workplace were affected adversely. Recently, there has been an increase in mobbing cases in Turkey. The purpose of the present study is to identify the features of trauma and analyse the development of mental problems caused by traumatic experiences in individuals who have been subjected to mobbing at workplace, and admitted to psychiatry services.Method: Three-hundred individuals included in the study who had been admitted to Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry Department, Psychosocial Trauma Programme, through general psychiatry outpatient clinics and forensic medicine institute consultations, with the purpose of preparing forensic reports between January 2008-September 2012. Trauma Evaluation Form (TIF), Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were administered.Results: Mobbing was identified in 130 out of 300 patients who claimed to have been subjected to trauma at workplace (43.3%). Mobbing cases were aged between 18 and 61, 100 (76.9%) of them were women. 56 (43%) of the cases were married, 54 (41.5%) of them were single and others were divorced, widowed or separated. 110 (84.6%) of the patients were university graduates while 13 of them were high school graduates and 5 of them were elementary school graduates. 76 of the cases were government officers and 65 of them were teachers. 93 (71.5%) patients were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition-Revised (DSM-IV-TR) criteria, 9 patients (6.9%) had adjustment disorder and 102 of the patients (78.5%) were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. Mean Total IES of 122 patients was 58.4±16.7. Three persons (2.3%) had not received any diagnoses and 83 individuals (63.8%) had received multiple diagnoses. Conclusion:The fact that mobbing was identified in approximately half of cases who applied to get a forensic report points out the extensiveness of the problem. High percentage of PTSD was established in victims of mobbing. It is important to include psychologic trauma in definiton of trauma in manuals of psychiatric disorders. Preparation of a report is useful in helping these individuals to protect their legal rights as well as documenting these wrongdoings, improving the sense of justice, enabling these individuals to be examined by psychiatry experts and having them access to treatment.

Clinical Characteristics of Patients Seeking Treatment for Common Mental Disorders Presenting With Workplace Bullying Experiences

“…The prevalence was significantly higher compared to the non-exposed patients (60.0%). These results are similar to findings from a study performed on out-patient clinics in Turkey, where 78.5% of patients exposed to bullying could be diagnosed with MDD in accordance with criteria from DSM-IV-TR (Tatar and Yüksel, 2019).…”

“…This prevalence is also quite high compared to healthcare workers in Europe, a sector known for having high prevalence of bullying, where a systematic review by Lever et al (2019) found a mean prevalence of 18.4%. In a sample of patients receiving psychiatric care for workplace traumas in out-patient clinics in Turkey, as many as 43.3% reported exposure to workplace bulling (Tatar and Yüksel, 2019). Prevalence rates estimated from measure of exposure to negative acts such as the NAQ-R or S-NAQ often varies between 10.0 and 17.0% in other countries (Zapf et al, 2020).…”

“…Hence, it is important to study the prevalence of workplace bullying in this population of patients and to explore how these individuals may or may not differ from other patients with CMD. To the best of our knowledge, only one study Tatar and Yüksel (2019) has yet investigated prevalence rates of workplace bullying in a clinical sample consisting of patients with CMD. However, Tatar and Yüksel (2019) included patients who had experienced bullying or other forms of psychological trauma at the workplace, thus we still lack knowledge of the prevalence of workplace bullying in the population of patients on sick leave or at risk due to CMD.…”

“…A growing body of evidence has established that being exposed to such bullying tend to have a range of detrimental effects on victims, hence also being a major workrelated predictor of mental, psychosomatic and to some extent physical health problems (Vartia, 2001;Lever et al, 2019). Symptoms include negative health conditions such as, cardiovascular disease (Jacob and Kostev, 2017;Xu et al, 2018), musculoskeletal pain (Høgh et al, 2011;Kääriä et al, 2012;Buhaug et al, 2020), gastrointestinal symptoms (Lever et al, 2019), sleep difficulties (Hansen et al, 2014;Verkuil et al, 2015;Lever et al, 2019;Rodríguez-Muñoz et al, 2020), symptoms of post-traumatic stress (Mikkelsen and Einarsen, 2002;Tatar and Yüksel, 2019), and general stress (Vartia, 2001), in addition to being associated with an increase in CMD (Verkuil et al, 2015;Finstad et al, 2019;Lo Presti et al, 2019;Rodríguez-Muñoz et al, 2020).…”

Association Between Workplace Bullying Occurrence and Trauma Symptoms Among Healthcare Professionals in Cyprus

“…Although PTSD and response to bullying victimization share similar manifestations, e.g. distressing emotions, functional impairment and physiological arousal ( Tatar and Yüksel, 2019 ), there is limited data on the association between these phenomena in nurses employed in highly stressful work environments, such as emergency departments (EDs) or intensive care units (ICUs) ( Mealer et al, 2012 ). Previous studies have identified the link between PTSD symptoms and exposure to workplace bullying, however in different populations, i.e.…”