Friday, January 16, 2004

Report links high job demands with mental illness (UK)
Brief story at Croner Web Centre - " A new research report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concludes that high rates of common mental disorder in certain occupations may be due to the associated levels of job demands and expectations and the emotional demands of working with people. " The report, Occupation and mental health: Secondary analyses of the ONS Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of Great Britain (Adobe Acrobat format) is available from the HSE web site - " There is increasing concern about the effects of the psychosocial work environment on mental health. One approach to examining work and mental health is to compare rates of common mental disorder between occupations. This report describes a secondary analysis of the Second Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity among adults living in private households in Britain linking occupation to psychological morbidity. Occupation measured by Standard Occupational Classification, as major, sub major, minor and constituent unit groups was linked to common mental disorder measured by the revised version of the Clinical Interview Schedule, to self reported sickness absence data, illicit drug use, psychotropic drug use and use of health services."