Symptomatology of depressive state in the workplace

Authors investigated symptomatology of depressive state among workers in a 20-year study. A cohort of 167 men of a company in Japan, aged 18– 40 years old at baseline in 1985 was researched as a study sample. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Zung’s self-rating depression scale (SDS) consisting of 6 somatic- and 14 psychological-symptom items. In a logistic regression analysis, sleep disturbance and fatigue, and total somatic-symptom scores were related to both future and long-term depressive state (all P < 0.05), after adjusting age and other variables. Although many unrecognized cases of depression exist, they may report somatic symptoms as potential depressive state.