friday, november 5, 1999
Mental illness no bar to career, study finds
Many sufferers able to find professional jobs
Medical Tribune News Service
if you think severe mental illness is the fast track to career destruction, think again. A new study of 500 professionals who suffer or have recovered from a serious mental illness, including bipolar disease and severe depression, found that almost 75 percent were able to achieve full-time employment in established careers.
"People with serious mental illness are able to succeed in responsible, stressful, well-paid positions," said Marsha Ellison, senior research associate at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation and co-author of the study.
Ellison and senior research associate Zlatka Russinova surveyed 500 people with severe psychiatric conditions who have held a professional or managerial job after experiencing psychiatric problems. They found:
Seventy-three percent of all participants reported full-time employment. An additional 6 percent have been self-employed.
Sixty-two percent have held their current position for more than two years; 29 percent kept the same job for more than five years.
The yearly income of most participants (79 percent) was more than $20,000; 35 percent made ore than $40,000 and 22 percent made more than $50,000.
Eighty-eight percent were taking psychotropic medications to help treat their conditions; 33 percent received counseling from a psychiatrist or therapist.
"I'm not surprised at all," said Dale Johnson, professor of psychology at the University of Houston. "With appropriate treatment, people with bipolar disorders and major depressions do very well. That isn't to minimize the level of disability many people suffer due to these conditions. However, being functional in the professional world is quite attainable."
Ellison noted, however, that the study reflects only a small population of professionals with mental illness and should not be extrapolated to include all people with severe psychiatric conditions.
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