Depression risk increased with hours worked in stressful jobs: Study

The research team, based at the University of Michigan, used advanced statistical methods to emulate a randomized clinical trial, accounting for many other factors in the doctors' personal and professional lives. They found a "dose response" effect between hours worked and depression symptoms, with an average symptom increase of 1.8 points on a standard scale for those working 40 to 45 hours, ranging up to 5.2 points for those working more than 90 hours. They conclude that, among all the stressors affecting physicians, working a large number of hours is a major contributor to depression.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team from Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center, report their findings from studying 11 years' worth of data on more than 17,000 first-year medical residents. The recently graduated doctors were in training at hundreds of hospitals across the United States.

"This analysis suggests strongly that reducing the average number of work hours would make a difference in the degree to which interns' depressive symptoms increase over time, and reduce the number who develop diagnosable depression," says Amy Bohnert, the study's senior author

Reference:

Amy Bohnert, et al,Work Hours and Depression in U.S. First-Year Physicians,New England Journal of Medicine,DOI:10.1056/NEJMc2210365