Improve Team Spirit to Reduce Depression Risk, Researchers Say
Lack of team spirit at the workplace has considerable negative influence on the employees’ mental health, particularly raising the risk of depression and resultant use of antidepressants. These results are based on a research study carried out in Finland and published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, which surveyed 3,347 employees of the age group 30-64.
The surveyed employees were quizzed about how they perceived the situation at their workplace. They were asked pointed questions about team spirit, level of communication, the amount of control they had in their jobs, and the employers’ responsiveness to their demands.
Further, the employees were asked to give ratings to their workplace environment on the following parameters:
- Level of encouragement and receptiveness to new ideas
- Liberalness
- Friendliness and cordiality
- Presence of hostility and aggression
The survey also took into account the social aspects of the employees’ lives, whether they lived with a partner, and health facilities available to them.
The researches then monitored the employees’ diagnoses of depression, and alcohol abuse. Data on antidepressants sold over the next three years to these employees was also obtained from official sources.
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Those employees who found that the team spirit in their workplace was not good were found to be over 60% more prone to depression; they were also over 50% more likely to resort to antidepressants.
The researchers also pointed out an alarming trend in Finland. Though the occurrence of mental health problems has remained quite stable in the past few years, the use of antidepressant drugs has become seven times between 1990 and 2005. The researchers cautioned that this was not a healthy trend, and argued for more focus on psychosocial efforts.
