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Workplace bullying may lead to antidepressant prescription use

Witnessing bullying or being bullied at the workplace was associated with subsequent psychotropic medication prescriptions among employees, according to study results.

“In general, workplace bullying is about situations at work, where the victims are in an unequal position with respect to their bully and are unable to defend themselves against the negative actions,” the researchers wrote. “Such workplace bullying also is systematic and typically persists over longer periods of time.”

The study included 6,606 male and female city employees aged 40 to 60 years working in Helsinki, Finland. Participants were surveyed about being victims of and witnessing workplace bullying. Survey data were linked with data on purchases of psychotropic medication prescriptions, which was taken from the Finnish Social Insurance Institution’s register. All psychotropic medication prescriptions dating 3 years before and 5 years after the survey was conducted were included in the study — these included psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics. Dementia medication was excluded.

Results indicated that 5% of male and female employees reported that they were currently victims of workplace bullying, and 12% percent of men and 18% of women reported that they had been bullied before, either at the same or another workplace. Almost half of female and male employees observed workplace bullying at least sometimes, compared with 7% of men and 8% of women who had frequently observed workplace bullying. Additionally, a number of male and female employees were unsure if they had been victims of workplace bullying (11% of men and 10% of women) or had witnessed bullying (5% of men and 6% of women).

Adjusting for age and prior medication use, the researchers found that workplace bullying was associated with subsequent psychotropic medication prescriptions among both men (HR=2.15; 95% CI, 1.36-3.41) and women (HR=1.51; 95% CI, 1.18-1.93). Witnessing bullying also was associated with psychotropic medication prescriptions among men (HR=1.92; 95% CI, 1.23-2.99) and women (HR=1.53; 95% CI, 1.25-1.88).

Psychotropic medications were more common among women than men. For example, 23% of women vs. 17% of men had at least one prescription, and 16% of women vs. 10% of men were prescribed psychotropic medication 3 years before baseline.

“Workplace bullying needs to be tackled proactively in an effective way to prevent its adverse consequences for mental health,” the researcher wrote.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.