With Layoffs, There's Stress for All
Mental health problems accompany corporate downsizing

(HealthDay News) -- The stress of corporate downsizing isn't limited to workers who are laid off. It apparently also affects those who keep their jobs.

A study of municipal workers in Europe found that those who remained in their jobs after downsizing showed increased use of prescription psychotropic drugs, such as antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, and sleeping pills.

"In other words, enforced redundancies may boost mental health problems among those who keep their jobs," the study's lead author, Mika Kivimaki, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University College London, told HealthDay .

The researchers analyzed data collected on 27,000 municipal workers in Finland between 1994 and 2000. About 4,300 of the participants were laid off, about 4,800 kept their jobs after layoffs, and about 17,600 worked in units that weren't downsized.

Men who lost or left their jobs were 64 percent more likely to get a prescription for a psychotropic drug than were men who worked for units with no layoffs. But the study also found that men who kept their jobs after layoffs were almost 50 percent more likely to get a prescription for a psychotropic drug than were those in units with no layoffs. Women in downsized units were 12 percent more likely to get a prescription for a psychotropic drug than their peers in units with no layoffs, the study found.

Sleeping pills were the most common type of psychotropic drug prescribed to men, and anti-anxiety drugs were most often prescribed for women.

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health .

"Policymakers, employers and occupational health professionals should recognize that organizational downsizing may pose mental health risks among employees," Kivimaki said.

Dr. Rosemary K. Sokas, director of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, said the findings confirm that layoffs affect everyone in the workplace.

"This is an important study that supports the negative impact downsizing has on survivors who keep their jobs, as well as those who lose them," Sokas told HealthDay .

Job loss can have major consequences, including an increased risk of death, Sokas said -- a point also noted the study's authors.

"In the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, death rates among men soared in both Russia and in the newly independent states of Eastern Europe ," Sokas said. "This study, which takes place in Finland , a country with universal health insurance and a relatively intact social net, confirms that work matters."

She said the study also confirms the harmful impact of downsizing on people who keep their jobs.

"Downsizing is a workplace hazard," Sokas said.

On the Web

To learn more about coping with unemployment, visit the Canadian Mental Health Association.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Mika Kivimaki, Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, England; Rosemary K. Sokas, M.D., M.O.H., director, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; January 2007, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: May 31, 2008
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