Work-focused therapy for common mental disorders: A naturalistic study comparing an intervention group with a...

Common mental disorders (CMD) are leading causes of sickness absence. Treatments for CMD that both reduce symptoms and support work participation urgently need to be developed.

Determine the potential effects of work-focused therapy combining work interventions with either meta cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy (W-MCT/CBT) for patients with CMD on sick leave.

Naturalistic study with a quasi-experimental approach. Pre- and post-scores (return to work, symptoms, return-to-work self-efficacy, clinical recovery from depression and anxiety) were compared between the intervention group (n = 87) who received immediate treatment over an average of 10.40 sessions (SD = 3.09) and the non-randomized waitlist control group (n = 95) that had waited an average of 11.18 weeks (SD = 2.29).

Significantly more patients returned fully to work in the intervention group (41.4%) than the control group (26.3%). Effect sizes for self-efficacy scores, depression and anxiety were large in the intervention group (d = 1.28, 1.01, 1.58), and significantly lower in the control group (d = 0.60, 0.14, 0.45). Significantly more patients in the treatment group than control group recovered from depression (54.1% vs. 12.8%) and anxiety (50.0% vs.10.6%).

W-MCT/CBT may be an effective intervention for patients on sick leave due to CMD.