Relationship between diagnostic subtypes of depression and occupation in Japan

The relationship between occupational groups and the subtypes of endogenous depression was investigated. 98 patients who were diagnosed as having endogenous depression and hospitalized in the psychiatric department of a medical school hospital over the 15-year period between 1981 and 1996 were divided into two occupational groups: 67 patients were classified as belonging to the industrialized society occupation group (e.g., office workers, managers, teachers and technicians) and 31 patients were classified as belonging to the traditional society occupation group (e.g., farmers and skilled manual workers). The unipolar-to-bipolar depression ratio for the industrialized society occupation group was revealed to be higher than that of the traditional society occupation group. This finding seems to support the view that the incidence of unipolar depression has increased with the process of industrialization. However, bipolar depression is less likely to be affected by societal and cultural changes due to the probably biologically dominant etiology of this form of depression.