The Relation between Work-related Psychosocial Factors and the Development of Depression

This review is based on a literature search made in January2007 on request by the Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries.The search in PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO resulted in morethan 1,000 publications. This was reduced to 14 after the titles,abstracts, and papers were evaluated by using the followingcriteria: 1) a longitudinal study, 2) exposure to work-relatedpsychosocial factors, 3) the outcome a measure of depression,4) relevant statistical estimates, and 5) nonduplicated publication.Of the 14 studies, seven used standardized diagnostic instrumentsas measures of depression, whereas the other seven studies usedself-administered questionnaires. The authors found moderateevidence for a relation between the psychological demands ofthe job and the development of depression, with relative risksof approximately 2.0. However, indication of publication biasweakens the evidence. Social support at work was associatedwith a decrease in risk for future depression, as all four studiesdealing with this exposure showed associations with relativerisks of about 0.6. Even if this literature study has identifiedwork-related psychosocial factors that in high-quality epidemiologicstudies predict depression, studies are still needed that assessin more detail the duration and intensity of exposure necessaryfor developing depression. depression • prospective studies • psychology • work