Working ability of mentally ill people in times of social crisis

In Yugoslavia a special commission evaluates the working abilities of insured ill people. In the last 14 years the number of people referred to this commission has increased. For people assessed as being unable to work the most frequent diagnoses have been psychiatric and cardiovascular diseases. All individual requests for retirement on partial or full pension based on mental disorder (n = 1563) made in 1982 in Bosna and Herzegovina were studied. People who were awarded pensions were also followed up. The results obtained indicated that the willingness to retire is widespread among insured people, quite often regardless of the actual impairment of their working abilities. Data are interpreted in the light of the severe socioeconomic crisis Yugoslavia has been experiencing through the last decade.