{"id":9299,"date":"2012-12-28T12:30:39","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T17:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=9299"},"modified":"2012-12-28T12:31:21","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T17:31:21","slug":"study-suggests-workplace-bullying-ups-risk-of-prescriptions-for-anxiety-depression-and-insomnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2012\/12\/study-suggests-workplace-bullying-ups-risk-of-prescriptions-for-anxiety-depression-and-insomnia\/","title":{"rendered":"Study suggests workplace bullying ups risk of prescriptions for anxiety, depression and insomnia"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the BMJ – British Medical Journal <\/em>press release via ScienceDaily:<\/p>\n

\"workplaceWitnessing or being on the receiving end of bullying at work heightens the risk of employees being prescribed antidepressants, sleeping pills, and tranquillisers<\/strong>, finds research published in BMJ Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Workplace bullying is linked to poorer mental health among employees<\/strong>, but it is not clear if that translates into a greater need for drug treatment, and if the impact is similar for those witnessing bullying and those who find themselves on the receiving end of it.<\/p>\n

The researchers asked 6606 public service employees working for the City of Helsinki in Finland — the largest employer in the country with 200 venues — about their experiences of workplace bullying, both personal and witnessed, between 2000 and 2002.<\/p>\n

National registry data on purchases of prescribed “psychoactive” drugs — antidepressants, sedatives, tranquillisers, and sleeping pills — were tracked for three years before the survey and for five years afterwards.<\/p>\n

All participants were aged between 40 and 60, and were part of the Helsinki Health Study.<\/p>\n

One in 20 employees said they were currently being bullied. A further one in five (18%) women and around one in eight men (12%) said they had been bullied before, either in the same job or in a previous job with another employer.<\/p>\n

Around half the respondents said that they had witnessed bullying in the workplace at least occasionally<\/strong>, while around one in 10 said they had witnessed it often.<\/p>\n

The findings showed that workplace bullying was associated with subsequent prescriptions for psychoactive drugs in both men and women.<\/p>\n

Women were around 50% more likely to have a prescription for these drugs while men were around twice as likely to do so if they had been bullied at work<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And witnessing workplace bullying had a similar impact. Women were 53% more likely to be prescribed a psychoactive drug<\/strong>, while men were almost twice as likely to receive a prescription of this kind.<\/p>\n

The associations remained after taking account of factors likely to influence the results, including previous medication for mental health issues, childhood bullying, social class, and weight.<\/p>\n

Between one in 10 and one in seven people claim to have been bullied at work in Finland<\/strong>, say the authors, who conclude: “Workplace bullying needs to be tackled proactively in an effective way to prevent its adverse consequences for mental health.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the BMJ – British Medical Journal press release via ScienceDaily: Witnessing or being on the receiving end of bullying at work heightens the risk of employees being prescribed antidepressants,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,8],"tags":[123,282,14,49,158,12,362,62,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9509,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299\/revisions\/9509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}