Muschalla B, et al. – This study coveted an assessment of the frequency, type and characteristics of work–anxieties in somatic rehabilitation inpatients. The data displayed that about one–quarter of somatic rehabilitation patients required further diagnostic attention due to work–anxieties. Differential diagnostic of work–anxiety was necessary for initiating adequate therapeutic action. It was advised that somatic rehabilitation physicians ought to be cautioned regarding work–anxieties in their patients, especially in orthopaedic patients with preceding long–term sick leave.

Methods

• The scheme of this research was a cross-sectional observation study.
• During this study, inpatients were examined from a neurological, orthopedic and cardiologic rehabilitation clinic.
• The enrollment comprised of 1610 patients (18-65 years).
• The candidates were evaluated for work-anxieties in a short structured interview.
• The main measure comprised of analysis of the patients who scored high in at least two out of nine work-anxiety leading symptoms and reported impairment, with a differential-diagnostic interview on work-anxieties, and with the MINI interview on non-work-related common mental disorders.
• Patients filled in a self-rating on their subjective symptom load and sociodemographic data.

Results

• Approximately 20-27% of the enrollees (altogether n=393) reported a work-anxiety diagnosis.
• Orthopaedic patients displayed the highest work-anxiety and had the longest preceding sick leave (20.6 weeks in past 12 months).
• Orthopaedic patients sufferred from work-related adjustment anxieties, social anxieties, and workplace phobia.
• On the other hand, cardiology patients were affected more by hypochondriac anxieties.
• Anxieties of insufficiency and worrying occurred equally in all indications.