Can stress management at the workplace prevent depression? A randomized controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Stress, mental health and depression at the workplace have emerged as common and significant problems. The effectiveness of a stress-management program at the workplace was investigated.


METHODS
The effectiveness of a stress-management program was examined in workers at a highly stressful workplace using a randomized controlled trial. The 58 workers in the office were randomly assigned into a stress-management group (n = 28) and a control group (n = 30). The stress-management program included lectures on the perception of stress, measures to cope with it, stress-management recording sheets, and e-mail counseling. This program was based on the cognitive behavioral approach. The stress-management program was carried out for 3 months, and perceived work-related stress and psychological symptoms were evaluated using: General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-30, Center for Epidemiologic Study for Depression (CES-D), the Questionnaire of Work-Related Stress and the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire. Twenty-one out of the 28 in the stress-management group and all in the control group were successfully followed up.


RESULTS
In the stress-management group, a significant improvement in the depressive symptoms was observed, compared with the control group in CES-D (p = 0.003 by two-tailed paired t-test, and p = 0.042 by repeated measure analysis of variance). In the multiple regression analysis, the effect of stress management on depressive symptoms at follow-up was significant (p = 0.041), controlling for potential confounding factors. However, the alleviation of perceived occupational stress was limited.


CONCLUSIONS
A stress-management program based on the cognitive behavioral approach at the workplace may have potential for the prevention of depression.
Mino
Yoshio
Y
Mental Health Section, School of Social Welfare, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka, Japan. yoshmino@sw.osakafu-u.ac.jp
Babazono
Akira
A
Tsuda
Toshihide
T
Yasuda
Nobufumi
N
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007564:Japan; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology