Department of Health and Physical Education.
Department of Psychological Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education.
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2015 Feb;83(1):177-86. doi: 10.1037/a0037895. Epub 2014 Sep 15.
Chronic occupational stress is common among health care practitioners, with potential impacts on personal mental health and staff turnover. This study investigated whether directing practitioners' attention to thankful events in work could reduce stress and depressive symptoms.
A double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in 5 public hospitals with follow-up to 3 months posttreatment. One hundred two practitioners were randomly assigned into 3 conditions: gratitude, hassle, and nil-treatment. Those with scheduled long leaves were excluded. Participants in the gratitude and hassle group wrote work-related gratitude and hassle diaries respectively twice a week for 4 consecutive weeks. A no-diary group served as control. Depressive symptoms (primary outcome) and perceived stress (secondary outcome) were collected at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses were performed with mixed-effects regression.
Significant Treatment × Time interaction effects were found for the gratitude intervention, whether it was compared with control or hassle; the general pattern was a decline in stress and depressive symptoms over time, but the rate of decline became less pronounced as time progressed. Hassle and control were basically indistinct from each other. Relative to control, the gratitude group reported lower depressive symptoms (-1.50 points; 95% CI [-2.98, -0.01]; d = -0.49) and perceived stress (-2.65 points; 95% CI [-4.00, -1.30]; d = -0.95) at follow-up. RESULTS for the comparison between gratitude and hassle were similar.
Taking stock of thankful events is an effective approach to reduce stress and depressive symptoms among health care practitioners.
慢性职业压力在医疗保健从业者中很常见，可能会对个人心理健康和员工离职率产生影响。本研究旨在探讨将从业者的注意力集中在工作中的感恩事件上是否能减轻压力和抑郁症状。
在 5 家公立医院进行了一项双盲随机对照试验，随访时间为治疗后 3 个月。102 名从业者被随机分配到 3 个条件：感恩组、麻烦组和无处理组。那些有预定长假的人被排除在外。感恩组和麻烦组的参与者分别在连续 4 周的每周一和周四写两次与工作相关的感恩和麻烦日记。无日记组作为对照组。在基线、治疗后和 3 个月随访时收集抑郁症状（主要结局）和感知压力（次要结局）。采用混合效应回归进行意向治疗分析。
无论是与对照组还是麻烦组相比，感恩干预都显示出显著的治疗×时间交互效应；总的趋势是随着时间的推移，压力和抑郁症状逐渐下降，但随着时间的推移，下降速度变得不那么明显。麻烦组和对照组基本没有区别。与对照组相比，感恩组在随访时报告的抑郁症状（-1.50 分；95%CI[-2.98，-0.01]；d=-0.49）和感知压力（-2.65 分；95%CI[-4.00，-1.30]；d=-0.95）较低。感恩组与麻烦组的结果相似。
记录感恩事件是减轻医疗保健从业者压力和抑郁症状的有效方法。
