Article

OBJECTIVE: To investigate frequency, type, and characteristics of work anxieties
in patients with somatic illness. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observation study.
SETTING: Neurology, orthopedic, and cardiology rehabilitation clinics.
PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N=1610; age, 18-65y) with work anxieties. INTERVENTIONS:
Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients who scored high on at least 2 of
9 items in the work-anxiety screening questionnaire and who reported impairment
were investigated with a differential diagnostic interview on work anxieties and
with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview on non-work-related common
mental disorders. Patients also filled out a self-rating questionnaire on their
subjective symptom load and sociodemographic data. RESULTS: Approximately 20% to
27% of the investigated inpatients in somatic rehabilitation (altogether n=393)
received a work-anxiety diagnosis. Patients with orthopedic illness report
highest work anxiety and have previous longest sick leave (20.6wk in the past
12mo). Patients with orthopedic illness suffer from work-related adjustment
disorder with anxiety, social anxieties, and workplace phobias, whereas patients
with cardiac illness are more often affected by hypochondriac anxieties.
Anxieties of insufficiency and worrying occur equally in all indications.
CONCLUSIONS: About a quarter of patients in somatic rehabilitation are in need of
additional diagnostic attention owing to work anxieties. Differential diagnostic
of work anxiety is needed for initiating adequate therapeutic action. Somatic
rehabilitation physicians should be aware of work anxieties in their patients,
especially in patients with orthopedic illness with previous long-term sick leave.
CI - Copyright (c) 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS