Depression Among Lawyers: Chicken or Egg?

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Lawyer depression is one of those topics that seems to reappear on a regular basis here at Legal Blog Watch, and the latest sighting comes by way of an article this month in the California Bar Journal, "Depression Takes a Heavy Toll on Lawyers." Consider this excerpt:

According to a Johns Hopkins University study, lawyers suffer the highest rate of depression among workers in 104 occupations. A University of Washington study found that 19 percent of lawyers suffered depression compared to 3 percent to 9 percent in the general population. And a University of Arizona study of law students found that they suffer eight to 15 times the anxiety, hostility and depression of the general population.

Richard Carlton, deputy director of the State Bar of California's Lawyer Assistance Program, sees those numbers and says, "There's something about the practice of law that attracts a certain personality that is prone to experiencing these problems." But is it the chicken or the egg? Is it that law attracts people who are prone to depression or that those who choose law find themselves depressed by their work? As the California LAP's director, Janis Thibault, puts it, "I've never seen such a lonely profession -- the inability to connect with other people at a deep level because there's so much of an adversarial relationship." . . .