On-the-job stress and unsupportive workplaces may foster depression, a new study suggests.

The study comes from psychiatry researchers including Emma Robertson Blackmore, PhD, of New York's University of Rochester.
They interviewed more than 24,300 workers in Canada in 2002 about the workers' depression symptoms. Based on the interviews, the researchers concluded that 4.6% of the workers qualify for a diagnosis of major depression.
Work stress stood out among the depressed employees.
""High job strain, low levels of social support in the workplace, low job security, and increased psychological demands were associated with major depressive episodes in men,"" the researchers write.
The risk list was slightly different for women.
High-stress jobs weren't a factor, but ""among women, lower levels of social support and lack of decision authority were associated with having major depressive episodes,"" write Blackmore and colleagues.
The study has some limits. For instance, the researchers don't know whether the depressed workers were depressed because of their jobs or what else might have contributed to the workers' depression.
--Job stress may raise heart disease risk
Stress on the job may take its toll on your heart. A new study shows workers who report high levels of job stress have increased levels of an inflammatory marker linked to heart disease.
Researchers found that workers who felt they had little or no control in their jobs had elevated levels of a blood-clotting factor called fibrinogen. Previous studies have shown elevated levels of fibrinogen and other markers of inflammation in the body are associated with an increased risk of heart disease, such as a heart attack.
Researchers say the results may help explain the well-known link between stress and heart disease, which cannot be explained by traditional heart disease risk factors, such as high cholesterol and blood pressure. They say inflammation may be the pathway by which high stress leads to an increased risk of heart disease.
In the study, which appears in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers looked at the link between job stress, job control, and social support and markers of inflammation and infection in a group of 892 male workers in Belgium.
All of the participants answered a questionnaire and underwent blood tests to measure several markers of inflammation and infection.
The results showed that job control was significantly related to one inflammatory marker, fibrinogen. Workers who felt they had little control over their jobs had increased levels of this inflammatory marker.
The link between lack of job control and elevated fibrinogen levels remained significant after controlling for other factors, such as age, occupation, use of cholesterol or blood pressure medication and smoking.
Job stress in this study was unrelated to another inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP), which has been linked to heart disease in other studies.
(Source: WebMD.com)