TY - JOUR
T1 - Antidepressant treatment among social workers, human service professionals, and non-human service professionals
T2 - A multi-cohort study in Finland, Sweden and Denmark
AU - Rantonen, O.
AU - Alexanderson, K.
AU - Clark Lyth, Alice Jessie
AU - Aalto, V.
AU - Sónden, A.
AU - Brønnum-Hansen, Henrik
AU - Hougaard, Charlotte Ørsted
AU - Rod, Naja Hulvej
AU - Mittendorfer-Rutz, E.
AU - Kivimäki, M.
AU - Oksanen, T.
AU - Salo, P.
N1 - Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - BACKGROUND: Social workers have an elevated risk for mental disorders, but little is known about their antidepressant treatment.AIMS: To examine any and long-term antidepressant treatment among social workers in Finland, Sweden and Denmark.METHODS: We linked records from drug prescription registers to three prospective cohorts: the Finnish Public Sector study, years 2006-2011, and nation-wide cohorts in Sweden and Denmark, years 2006-2014, including a total of 1.5 million employees in (1) social work, (2) other social and health care professions, (3) education and (4) office work. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios for any and long-term (>6 months) antidepressant treatment among social workers compared to the three reference occupational groups and carried out meta-analyses.RESULTS: During follow-up, 25% of social workers had any prescriptions for antidepressants (19-24% reference occupations) and 20% for long-term treatment (14-19% reference occupations). The pooled effects for any and long-term treatment showed that probabilities were 10% higher in social workers compared to other health and social care professionals and 30% higher compared to education and non-human service professionals. Probabilities for any treatment in the three countries were relatively similar, but for long-term treatment social workers in Finland had a greater risk compared with other human service professions.LIMITATIONS: There were differences between the cohorts in the availability of data. Specific diagnoses for the antidepressant treatment were not known neither adherence to treatment.CONCLUSION: Social workers have a higher risk for any and long-term antidepressant treatment than other human and non-human service professionals.
AB - BACKGROUND: Social workers have an elevated risk for mental disorders, but little is known about their antidepressant treatment.AIMS: To examine any and long-term antidepressant treatment among social workers in Finland, Sweden and Denmark.METHODS: We linked records from drug prescription registers to three prospective cohorts: the Finnish Public Sector study, years 2006-2011, and nation-wide cohorts in Sweden and Denmark, years 2006-2014, including a total of 1.5 million employees in (1) social work, (2) other social and health care professions, (3) education and (4) office work. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios for any and long-term (>6 months) antidepressant treatment among social workers compared to the three reference occupational groups and carried out meta-analyses.RESULTS: During follow-up, 25% of social workers had any prescriptions for antidepressants (19-24% reference occupations) and 20% for long-term treatment (14-19% reference occupations). The pooled effects for any and long-term treatment showed that probabilities were 10% higher in social workers compared to other health and social care professionals and 30% higher compared to education and non-human service professionals. Probabilities for any treatment in the three countries were relatively similar, but for long-term treatment social workers in Finland had a greater risk compared with other human service professions.LIMITATIONS: There were differences between the cohorts in the availability of data. Specific diagnoses for the antidepressant treatment were not known neither adherence to treatment.CONCLUSION: Social workers have a higher risk for any and long-term antidepressant treatment than other human and non-human service professionals.
U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2019.03.037
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2019.03.037
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30856492
VL - 250
SP - 153
EP - 162
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
SN - 0165-0327
ER -