Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:13:08.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stress, work and mental health: a global perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

Marten W deVries  and
Bill Wilkerson
Marten W deVries*
Affiliation:
1University of Maastricht, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Bill Wilkerson
Affiliation:
2International Business and economic Roundtable for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
*
Prof. Dr. Marten deVries CCPMH Postbus 616 6200 MD, Maastricht. Tel. +31-43-3299773 Email: mdevries@ccpmh.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background:

The United Nations, WHO and the World Bank have called the current prevalence rate of neuro-psychiatric disorder approaches of 1 in 4 individuals worldwide and ‘unheralded public health crisis’. Rates are driven by an early onset, high impairment and high chronicity of these disorders. Most importantly, detection and treatment rates are low, estimated at les than 10% worldwide resulting in 500 million people underserved. The related economic costs soared in 1999 to 120 billion dollars in Europe and North America, with over 60 billion dollars assigned to stress related disorders. Contributing factors are bio-psycho-social and include rapid social change as well as the time compression of modern life resulting in the experience of increased work-life stress that parallels a decade long intensification of activities in the workplace. Coping with the requirements of the new economy of mental performance has lagged behind at many individual and social levels as we cling to adjustments made during the industrial economy of the last century. A climate of transition, and more recently, terror and fear have stressed the landscape of mental health and work already ravaged by the destructive forces of stigma.

Aim:

This presentation will examine the other side of prosperity from the point of view of stress in the workplace as two global problems converge at this time in history, the escalation of neuro-psychiatric disorders and the increasing dependence on the mental faculties of the world's citizens.

In this paper we also discuss how the international community can work together to help reduce the burden of mental disorders worldwide and sketch the implications for research and policy.

Conclusions:

Ultimately the media will need to be enlisted to educate the public on the value of investments in mental health.

Keywords

mental healthstresswork
Type
Review Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , February 2003 , pp. 44 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 Blackwell Munksgaard

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Regier, DA, Myers, JK, Kramer, M, Robins, LN, Blazer, DG, Hough, RL, Eaton, WW and Locke, BZ.The NIMH epidemiologic catchment area program. Arch General Psychiatry 1984;41: 934–942. CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perez, E, Wilkerson, B.Mindsets – mental health: the ultimate productivity weapon. Riverslea, Canada: The Homewood Centre for Organizational Health, 1998. Google Scholar
Murray, CJL, Lopez, AD.Regional patterns of disability-free life expectancy and disability-adjusted life expectancy: Global burden of disease study. Lancet 1997;349: 1347–1352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Desjarlais, R, Eisenberg, L, Good, B, Kleinman, A.World Mental Health 1995. New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1995. Google Scholar
WHO. The World Health Report 2001. Mental health: new understanding, new hope. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2001. Google Scholar
ILO. Mental health in the workplace: situation analysis (preliminary report). Geneva: US ILO, 2000. Google Scholar
Eisenberg, L.The world burden of mental illness. Toronto, Canada: APA Symposium, 1998. Google Scholar
Jenkins, R, DeVries, MW, Kleinman, A, Eisenberg, L.WHO Where there is no vision, the people perish. Lancet 1997;350: 1480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill(NAMI). 1999. Cost data on parity for mental illness; campaign to end discrimination; NAMI fact sheet; some questions you may have about the new federal parity law. Washington, D.CGoogle Scholar
World Bank. world development report – investing in health. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993. Google Scholar
Desjarlais, R, Eisenberg, L, Good, B, Kleinman, A.World mental health 1995. New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1995. Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program. Human Development Report 1996. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996. Google Scholar
US Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD, 1999. Google Scholar
WHO. Nations for mental health. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1995. Google Scholar
WHO. Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development. Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2001b. Google ScholarPubMed
deVries, MW.The Global Mental Health Need: a WFMH Response in Science and Advocacy. Keynote address presented at 50th Anniversary meeting WFMH-WHO Partners for Mental Health: Nations for Mental Health, London, 1998. tRevista de Psiquiatria Chile,1999. Google Scholar
Kok, G, Borne, B van den, Dolan Mullen, P.Effectiveness of health education and health promotion: meta-analyses of effect studies and determinants of effectiveness. Patient Education and Counseling 1997;30: 19–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, EB.The Search for Mental Health: A History and Memoir of WFMH 1948–1997. Baltimore, MD, Williams and Wilkins Co, 1998. Google Scholar
Wilkerson, B.A Twelve-Step Business Plan to Defeat Depression. http:www.gpc.com , 2000. Google Scholar
House, J, Landis, K, Umbessen, D.Social relationships and health. Science 1983;241: 540–545. CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindeman, E.Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry 1944;101: 141–148. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, GW, Harris, TO..Social origins of depression: a study of psychiatric disorder in women. Travistok, London, Free Press, New York, 1978. Google Scholar
Caplan, G.Mastery of stress: Psychosocial aspects. Am J Psychiatry 1981;138,4: 413–420. Google Scholar
Mason, J.Organization of psycho endocrine mechanisms. Psychosomatic medicine 1968;30: 365–608. Google Scholar
Seyle, M.The stress of life (rev.ed.). New York, McGrawhill, 1976. Google Scholar
Sarason, IG, Pierce, GR, Sarason, BR.Social support and interactional process: A dyadic hypotheses. J Social Personal Relationships 1990;7: 495–506. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, TH, Rahe, RH.The social readjustment rating scale. J Psychom Res 1967;11: 213–218. CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
deVries, MW.Investigating mental disorders in their natural setting. J Nerv Mental Disease 1987;1275: 509–513. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, AA, Neale, JM, Shiffman, S.Daily assessments of stress and coping and their association with mood. Ann Behavior Med 1993;15,1: 8–16. Google Scholar
Nicolson, NA.Stress, coping and cortisol dynamics in daily life. In: de Vries MW (ed.). The experience of psychopathology: Investigating mental disorders in their natural settings. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp 219–232. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, RJ, Haggerty, RJ.Streptococcal infections in families: Factors altering individual susceptibility. Paediatrics 1962;29: 539–549. Google ScholarPubMed
Roghmann, K, Haggerty, RJ.Daily stress and the use of health services in young families. Pediatr Res 1973;7: 520–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M.Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Steps towards optimising Quality of life. Harper New York, 1991. Google Scholar
Kanner, AD, Coyne, JC, Schaefer, C, Lazarus, RS.Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events. J Behav Med 1981;4: 1–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLongis, A, Coyne, JC, Dakof, G, Folkman, S, Lazarus, RS.Relationships of daily hassles, uplifts, and major life events to health status. Health Psychol 1982;1: 119–136. Google Scholar
DeVries, MW, Delespaul, PAEG.Social context and subjective experience in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 1989;15,2: 233–244. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Da Costa, JM.On irritable heart: A clinical form of functional cardiac disorder and its consequences. Am J Med Sci 1871;61: 17–52. Google Scholar
Engel, GL.Psychological development in Health and Disease. W.B. Saunders Company, 1962. Google Scholar
Engel, GL.The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine. Science 1977;196: 129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, GW, Andrews, B, Bifulco, A, Veiel, H.Self-esteem and depression. Social Psychiatr Psychiatric Epidemiol 1990;25: 200–209. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trickett, EJ.The community context of disaster and traumatic stress: an ecological perspective from community psychology. In: DeVries, MW, Hobfoll, SE (ed.). Extreme Stress and Communities: Impact and Intervention. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995. Google Scholar
Herzlich, C, Pierret, J.Illness and self in society. Transcultural Psychiatry, 1987. Google Scholar
Wahl, OF.Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1995. Google Scholar
White, RW.Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychol Rev 1959;66: 297–333. CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandura, A.Self-efficacy mechanisms in human agency. Am Psychologist 1982;37: 122–147. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVries, MW.Recontextualizing psychiatry: Toward ecologically valid mental health research. Transcultural Psychiatry 1997;34: 185–218. Google Scholar
Kessler, R.Mental Health and Work: Current status – paper presented at Business and Mental Energy at Work Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, October 7–9, 2000. Google Scholar
Haggerty, RG, Hamburg, B.Reducing the Risk for Mental Disorders. Washington, D.C., National Academy of Science Press, 1994. Google Scholar
Krueger, RA.Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Newbury Park, CA, Sage, 1988. Google Scholar
Giddens, A.The Third Way and its Critics. Polity Press, Cambridge 2000 . Google Scholar
WHO. The World Health Report 2001. Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2001a. Google ScholarPubMed