October 2007

Depression hits healthcare workers hard

DCs may need to be on the lookout for another potential harm to their practice success — employee depression.

New research by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicated that people who work in personal care and services, such as child care workers or hairdressers, are more likely to report depression than engineers and architects.

However, the No. 3 profession most likely to report depression included healthcare workers and individuals in the community and social services field.

According to the survey, 10.8 percent of full-time workers in the personal care and services field reported depression, as well as 10.3 percent of food preparation and serving employees, and 9.6 percent of healthcare and community and social services workers.

Engineers, architects, and surveyors were the least depressed (4.3 percent), according to the report.

The report appears in SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report.

Approximately 67,500 adults between the ages of 18 and 64 participated in annual SAMHSA surveys from 2004 to 2006. They reported their job status and whether they had been depressed for at least two weeks in the past year. Overall, 8.6 percent of participants had been depressed in the past year. Depression was more commonly reported by women than men.

Source: WebMD, www.webmd.com

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