Work stress linked to depression

People suffering from stress related to work are at an increased risk of depression. Depression can have a variety of causes and factors. One of them is work stress. This can manifest itself as behavioural changes, low productivity, poor employee health and other symptoms. Chronic job stress has been associated with a number of health risks. Some of these include high blood pressure and heart disease. It's been found that men who report high job strain are more than twice as likely to suffer depression as men who were low on the job-strain scale. High job strain is defined as work that is demanding but leaves people little independence or decision-making authority. To assess the association between work stress and depression, Canadian researchers derived data from the Canadian Community Health Survey conducted on 24324 employed individuals in the year 2002. These subjects underwent diagnostic interviews for depression. The results showed that job stress could be a significant factor leading to depression. Out of the 24324 subjects, five percent emerged as having major depressive episodes. As compared to men, this risk was lower in women. Women with low levels of decision authority were more likely to have depression than were women with high levels of authority. However, one measure of job stress, i.e. lack of support from co-workers and supervisors, was related to depression in both men and women. These results point to the need for taking depression prevention measures at workplace. Counselling programmes and training opportunities can help in relieving some sources of job stress.