New year, new career? If you sometimes feel down on the job, you could be working in one of the fields that leads to higher rates of depression than others, a new study suggests.
People working in some industries are more at risk of being depressed than others, with transportation workers and real estate agents being the most at risk, according to a study published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
Researchers looked at the prevalence of depression in employees working in over 50 different industries by assessing insurance claims data for over 214,000 people. They found that the industries with the highest rates of depression included local transportation workers at 16 percent, real estate at 15 percent, social work at 14 percent, legal services jobs at 13 percent and publishing jobs at 12 percent.
The industries found to have the lowest rate of depression included amusement, recreation services, and the performing arts at 7 percent along with repair services jobs at 7 percent also.
Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest and affects how you feel, think and behave, leading to a variety of emotional and physical problems. This could include have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities feeling as if life isn’t worth living. Depression may require long-term treatment involving medication, psychological counseling or both.
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