gms | German Medical Science

Background: Work-anxieties are associated with sick-leave and make high costs for companies and affected employees. Work-anxieties require specific diagnostic and interventions. We evaluated a short “work-anxiety-coping-group” (WAG).

Aim: We tested experimentally whether the exposition-oriented group (WAG) lead to shorter sick-leave-durations after treatment than a group focused on wellbeing and relaxation (“wellbeing-group” WG).

Method: 1619 employees who were presently in rehabilitation (with the aim of illness recovery and vocational reintegration) were investigated for work-anxieties.

389 persons with work-anxiety were randomly assigned to either WAG or WG. In the beginning and in the end of rehabilitation, general symptom load, work-anxiety, work-coping were measured. From 254 persons the duration of sick leave after the rehabilitation could be assessed.

Results/findings: Persons with work-anxiety (without other mental health problems) who participated in the WAG had a shorter sick leave duration after rehabilitation than persons with work-anxiety from the WG.

In participants with work-anxiety and additional mental health problems there was no difference between the two groups.

When the intervention was longer (six instead of four sessions), the WG-participants perceived a loss of work-coping.

Discussion and conclusions: Early work-oriented interventions are necessary for preventing loss of work-coping. Future research should investigate whether longer duration of interventions may lead to shorter sick-leave in persons with both work-anxiety and additional mental health problems. This is the first RCT for treatment of work-anxieties. This study contained persons with different somatic illnesses, which also influence return-to-work. Research on (work-anxiety-prevention) interventions at work is needed.