Aspiring pyschologist Alden Cass argues that retail brokers are more prone to depression that the population at large.

Cass, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, is studying depressive tendencies of retail stock brokers, according to the latest issue of the New York Observer. “A lot of these guys have manic-depressive personalities that are enhanced by the volatility of the market. They also lack the insight or the coping skills to deal with the stresses of the market,” said Cass. “As a result, itÕs natural to find higher levels of depression amongst them.”

Cass has already published research on the depressive tendencies of brokers, with one of his professors, John Lewis, at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.

Cass and Lewis have found that Wall Street stockbrokers pulling down the biggest paycheques also suffered higher levels of depression, burnout and other afflictions. “In essence, these brokers appear to be paying for financial success with their mental health and quality of life,” they suggested.

“The most astounding finding of our investigation is that despite the moderate to high levels of emotional distress reported by the participants, these individuals were still making on average more than S$139,000 for their annual income. Even more surprising was the fact that those brokers who reported greater impairment regarding depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion, as well as poorer coping skills, proved to be the most successful individuals based on their annual income.”

The NSU psychologists found the brokers who got the least sleep were more likely to have the higher salaries. Their scores placed them in the moderate to high range for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. They were spending an average of 10 to 12 hours at work daily, smoking almost two packs of cigarettes daily and consuming almost two drinks per day. They
suffered from the flu or a virus an average of four times per year but only
called in sick twice.

“Twenty-three percent of our sample met criteria for a clinical diagnosis of current major depression and 38% reached criteria for sub-clinical levels,” said Lewis. The rate in the general population is about 7%, according to the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S.

The authors urge the larger Wall Street brokerage houses to “implement some
sort of stress management program at a training level, for the purpose of
preventing these rather costly and negative personal outcomes from affecting
their employees and eventually the growth of the organization.”