[Psychiatric admissions among city bus drivers. A prospective study].

During the period from 1978 until and including 1984, 2,645 male bus drivers were followed as regards psychiatric admissions. In 1978, 83% of these had replied to a questionnaire about job-satisfaction and working conditions. Fifty-eight out of these 2,465 had been admitted to psychiatric departments during the follow-up period, corresponding to 117 admissions. The commonest diagnoses on discharge were affect reactions with a total of 35 discharges. The number of admissions to psychiatric hospitals among bus drivers was compared with the number of admissions among Danish men in 1981. Significantly fewer admissions among bus drivers were found in the diagnostic group manic depressive psychoses, reactive conditions and for all psychiatric admissions. On the other hand, the number of admissions among bus drivers where the diagnoses of affect reactions, paranoid conditions and non-specific psychoses were found to be significantly higher (standard morbidity ratio statistic = 217) than for Danish men. Odds-ratio for psychiatric admissions among the 2,045 bus drivers who had replied to the questionnaire in 1978 were significantly raised for the bus drivers who did not feel their work monotonous, were divorced, felt unbalanced and frequently stressed. Previous smokers had significantly lower odds ratio as compared with others.