Psychiatric disorders and unemployment in Edmonton

Significant relationships were found between unemployment in the last five years and a lifetime history of psychiatric disorder. These results are based on interviews of 3,258 randomly selected non-institutionalized adult residents of Edmonton, conducted by trained lay interviewers using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, 30-item). Having a lifetime history of a psychiatric disorder increased the odds of being unemployed 2.8 times. Disorders carrying the highest risk for unemployment were anorexia, antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders. GHQ results indicated that those experiencing periods of unemployment are also likely to have higher current symptom and stress levels than those who are employed.