A study by Help Musicians UK suggests 71% of musicians suffer anxiety and 69% experience depression.

A major new study coming out of the UK suggests that although music is widely credited as a panacea for many of our mental woes, the same cannot be said for its effect on musicians themselves. Help Musicians UK, a leading charity supporting British music makers, has commissioned a survey of 2,211 practitioners and the results make for pretty uncomfortable reading.

This new research, conducted by a team from the University of Westminster, is entitled Music and Depression (MAD) and is the largest survey of its kind carried out in the UK to date. The most worrying statistic is that 68.5% of respondents reported that they had suffered from depression at some time in their career while 71.1% believed that they had experienced panic attacks or high levels of anxiety. That puts musicians a startling three times more likely to be depressed than members of the general public.

The survey also sought reasons for this level of mental ill-health within the industry, findings which should be of interest for both musicians and their managements. They range from poor working conditions – anti-social hours, exhaustion...