Paris (AFP)

The rate of depression, particularly severe, among employees has exploded in France, a year after the start of the health crisis and the first confinement, according to a survey published Tuesday.

If the psychological distress of French employees remains significant and affects 45% of them (-5 points compared to December 2020) including 20% ​​of high psychological distress (identical), "the rate of depression requiring support among employees explodes .

It goes to 36% (+15 points compared to December 2020) while the number of severe depressions has doubled in one year ", reaching 21% in March 2021, said Christophe Nguyen, head of the Franco-Quebec cabinet Empreinte Human, specialized in the prevention of psychosocial risks (burn-out, depression, suicides ...).

He presented Tuesday the sixth wave since the beginning of the crisis of the "barometer of the psychological health of French employees in times of crisis", produced by OpinionWay.

"Psychological distress (mental health indicator used to diagnose mental disorders, Editor's note) is the antechamber of more severe mental disorders including depression, and we see that people are sinking," he added, indicating that "63% of employees" declare "seeing more and more colleagues in psychological distress".

"The distress is also expressed by behaviors of hostility, aggressiveness, it is not going well at all and it becomes a crisis at work", analyzes Mr. Nguyen.

"We are paying cash for the lack of prevention of mental health in the general population and in companies", he adds, comparing France to Quebec "where there was between 7 and 9% of psychological distress at the end of 2020".

The populations "most at risk" remain "those under 29", of which 62% are in psychological distress with an increased risk of depression for nearly four in ten.

Women are also very affected with 53% of them in psychological distress against 38% for men.

Managers, 48% of whom are in psychological distress, are more affected than non-managers (44%).

An aggravating factor for the former, 60% of them do not allow themselves to talk about their difficulties before dealing with those of their employees and 4 in 10 feel isolated as a manager, according to the barometer, carried out from March 1 to 12 from a representative sample of 2,004 employees, according to the quota method.

© 2021 AFP