Employees' Stress may Turn into Mental Disorder

Rising workload is often accompanied by stress. Now, a new research has proved that it can really be hazardous by finding that nearly five percent of employees have high levels of psychological distress associated with a high likelihood of a mental disorder.

Writing in the July Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), the study's lead author Michael F. Hilton, Ph.D., of The University of Queensland, Australia, based the study on a survey of more than 60,500 full-time employees of 58 Australian companies.

Anxiety Disorder - Types - Causes - Symptoms - Diagnosis - Treatment - FAQs
Anxiety disorder involves excessive worry about actual circumstances, events or conflicts. Anyone can develop this disorder. Genes may play a role.

Workers anonymously completed the "Kessler 6" questionnaire, which asked how often they felt sad, nervous, hopeless, etc. Scores of 13 or higher (on a 24-point scale) indicated high psychological distress, with a high likelihood of a mental disorder.

Overall, 4.5 percent of the employees had high psychological distress. Another 9.6 percent had moderate psychological distress (score of 8 to 12), indicating a "possible" mental disorder.

Just 22 percent of workers with high psychological distress were currently receiving treatment for a mental health condition. Another 29 percent said they had a mental disorder but had never sought treatment, while 31 percent denied having any problem.

Adolescent Depression - Causes - Affects - Depressed Teens - Treatment - FAQs
Adolescent depression is an ailment that occurs during the teenage characterized by persistent melancholy, disappointment and loss of self-esteem.

Workers in sales positions were at greatest risk of high psychological distress: 5.6 percent of men and 7.5 percent of women.

Workers expected to work long hours (60 or more per week) also had high rates of psychological distress.

Depression - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting approximately 340 million people in the world. No one is immune from depression - it occurs in people of all social classes, all countries and all cultural settings.

Another risk factor was working in "non-traditional gender roles"-for example, women who worked as equipment operators or laborers and for men who worked in clerical or administrative jobs. Marital separation and low education were also linked to high psychological distress.

The study-using methods familiar to OH and S professionals and managers-demonstrates a high rate of psychological distress in the working population.

Overview Suicide
Suicide is an act of ending one's own life and it usually results from emotional isolations and inability to adjust and cope with one's environment.

The risk factors identified may help in targeting groups of workers at high risk of psychological distress and mental health problems.

"Employers need to focus health resources on a common, debilitating, largely untreated illness group that substantially reduces employee productivity at work, increases absences from work, and increases employee attrition," the researchers said.

Source-ANI
SPH