Systematic review on depression in the workplace

Depression is a common psychiatric illness with personal and economic consequences: 3.7 per cent of the employed population in Canada aged 25 to 64 years experienced an episode of depression in the previous year. The economic impact relates to lost productivity due to absenteeism and reduced productivity while at work. Canadian employers have identified depression as one of the principal causes of workplace absenteeism. Stakeholders from Ontario’s health and safety system were invited to several meetings with the research team to provide direction and feedback on the review. The objective of our study was to determine which intervention approaches to manage depression in the workplace have been successful and yielded values for employers in developed economies.