Who'da thunk it. So instead of pushing drugs, perhaps they should just pass around more of the Green Stuff.
The Green Stuff Can Help Keep the Blues Away
By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 29, 2004; Page D3
WASHINGTON -- Perhaps money can buy happiness.
The results of a survey by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Americans with incomes of more than $50,000 reported fewer "sad, blue or depressed" days than those with incomes below that amount.
Overall, the results from annual surveys of Americans from 1995 to 2000 showed Americans feel sad, blue or depressed an average of three days a month. The findings were published in the online journal Health and Quality of Life Outcomes.
The research, led by the CDC's Rosemarie Kobau,
reported that people who reported the highest number of sad, blue or depressed days also reported engaging in unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and not exercising.
The survey found that women reported 3.5 days with
"depressive" symptoms while men reported 2.4 days.
Nonsmokers reported 2.4 fewer days of depressive
symptoms than those who smoked one pack or more of
cigarettes. Exercisers reported feeling blue an
average of 1.3 fewer days than nonexercisers.
People in households with at least $50,000 reported 1.7 depressive days each month, less than the 5.4 days reported by those earning less than $15,000. People earning less than $50,000 but more than $15,000 reported feeling blue 2.2 to 3.2 days a month.
The survey found that people who were unable to work reported the highest number of depressed days, feeling down an average of 10.2 days a month.
In general, the survey found that younger people
reported feeling sad, blue or depressed more often
than older people and that those with college degrees were happier than those without a high school diploma.
Ms. Kobau noted that mood disorders are a major
public-health problem in the U.S. But while there are reams of data about serious mental-health disorders, Ms. Kobau said there is less information about the health burden resulting from "subsyndromal levels of depressive symptomatology," such as feeling sad, blue
or depressed, among the general population.
Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at
jennifer.corbett-dooren@dowjones.com