Mental Health News
Researchers at the University of Michigan explored how stressful jobs can enhance the risk of developing depression. The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Study
In order to better understand how depression risk and job stress are interlinked in the medical profession, the research team used advanced statistical methods to emulate a randomized clinical trial.
They surveyed data from the Intern Health Study for more than 11 years. They examined factors pertaining to the personal and professional lives of more than 17,000 first-year medical residents in the US—tracking their depressive symptoms, work hours, sleep, etc.
The Findings
The results revealed that longer hours in a stressful job enhances the risk of developing depression symptoms as well as poor mental health. Working 90 or more hours a week was associated with enhanced risks of depressive disorders, in comparison to working 40 to 45 hours a week.
One of the lead researchers, Srijan Sen, elaborated: “National initiatives on clinician well-being have put increasing emphasis on the complex set of factors that affect clinician well-being. I think this emphasis has inadvertently led to the feeling that the problem is infinitely complicated and making real progress is hopeless. This paper demonstrates how big of an impact that the single factor of work hours has on clinician depression and well-being.”
To Know More You May Refer To
Fang, Y., Lodi, S., Hughes, T. M., Frank, E., Sen, S., & Bohnert, A. (2022). Work Hours and Depression in U.S. First-Year Physicians. The New England journal of medicine, 387(16), 1522–1524. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2210365