[Risk assessment of work disability due to mental disorders]

For more than 20 years, the rate of work disability pensions due to mental disorders has been rising. This development is in contrast to an overall decrease in the use of disability pension for other diseases. According to an exploratory study by the German state chamber of psychotherapy, most German insurance companies have hindered or excluded insurance protection for customers who have undergone psychotherapy. This practice will be analysed critically because it does not seem to be based on empirical evidence or on established risk algorithms. Results of empirical studies suggest that the use of psychotherapy is not a suitable criterion for the prediction of vocational disabilities due to mental disorders. In contrast, socio-demographic factors such as age or education level, personality factors like neuroticism or attribution style, coping characteristics like exhaustion and cynism, features of the working place like stress or payment conditions, and the type of mental disorder provide better information to calculate the risk of later long-term disability and disability pension caused by mental illness. The impact of these factors has mainly been proven by epidemiological studies from different European countries.

Assessment of risk for the use of disability pensions should be based on evidence from epidemiological studies.