[The requirement for the health examination in work place to focus on mood disorders]

In 2010 Mr. Nagatsuma, the former Minister of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan expressed his opinion that the health examination of work place should includes items to focus on mental disorders such as depression, just after the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology with related societies launched the Joint Declaration of Countermeasure for Depression. To carry out the examination the following requirement is necessary. 1) Keeping the results of the health examination in secret. 2) Enlightenment of mental disorders including depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia and pervasive developmental disorders. 3) Not only questionnaires for screening but also supportive and sympathetic interview methods that are reliable and valid. 4) Cooperation between work place and health professional In introduction of medical intervention and rehabilitation. The strategy to realize the above-mentioned requirements is as follows. 1) Education of the industrial mental health staff: public health nurses and psychologists. 2) Pilot study to examine the method of the health examination. 3) Research to establish the future preventive method of mental disrders. 4) Budgetary appropriation. As the health examination should be benefit for workers, hasty introduction of the examination should be avoided.