Psychiatric News (6/9) reports a study found that “people who work in the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and the media have a higher prevalence of frequent mental distress than those in other fields.” Researchers examined three measures of mental health among participants: diagnosis of lifetime depression; number of self-reported mentally unhealthy days (MUDs) in the past month; and frequent mental distress, “defined as a MUD score of 14 or higher.” They found that “overall, 14.2% of participants reported lifetime depression and 9.6% reported frequent mental distress.” When compared with workers in a reference group, “workers in the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media had 1.32 times the prevalence of frequent mental distress.” Meanwhile, employees “in food preparation and serving (1.20 times), health care support (1.19 times), and sales and related occupations (1.13 times) also had statistically higher prevalence of frequent mental distress compared with the reference group.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Frequent Mental Distress Varies by Occupation, Psychiatric News, June 9, 2025