Effectiveness of a brief psychotherapeutic intervention for employees with psychosomatic and psychosocial complaints: pilot study of a consultation off the workplace
Employees' mental health impairments are a leading reason for sickness-leave and early retirement. This is why a large number of different intervention programmes have evolved in recent years with the aim of counteracting this development. Our study evaluates a short-term cognitive-behavioral p...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
08 September 2020
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| In: |
Frontiers in psychiatry
Year: 2020, Volume: 11, Pages: 1-8 |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00867 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00867 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00867/full 
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| Author Notes: | Christine Allwang, Birgitt Marten-Mittag, Andreas Dinkel, Daniel Mauss and Claas Lahmann |
| Summary: | Employees' mental health impairments are a leading reason for sickness-leave and early retirement. This is why a large number of different intervention programmes have evolved in recent years with the aim of counteracting this development. Our study evaluates a short-term cognitive-behavioral psychotherapeutic intervention off the workplace. We investigated improvement of mental and physical health in psychologically strained employees of a white collar company. Depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), and perceived stress (PSQ-20) were assessed at the beginning and after the intervention. Patient satisfaction (recommendation - likeliness) was also measured after the intervention. In a second step we have looked at potential determinants of therapy outcome. Changes in the symptom measures were assessed using t-tests, MANOVA and Chi²-tests. Cohen's d was computed as effect size measure.127 participants completed the assessment before, and 66 participants post intervention. Mean age of the participants was 44.6 (SD = 9.8) years, 54% were men. 89.7 % of the patients attended one to five sessions. Depressive, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and perceived stress significantly declined from baseline to end of intervention. Effect sizes ranged from d= 0.49 (perceived stress) to d= 0.72 (depressive symptoms). Moreover, 93% of the patients stated that they were satisfied with the intervention and would recommend it to a friend. Previous uptake of psychiatric/psychotherapeutic treatment moderated the effect of the intervention on depressive symptoms, i.e. patients without previous experience showed a stronger reduction in symptoms of depression. The results tentatively suggest that the intervention is effective in reducing a broad range of psychological symptoms. Future research could investigate preferences and different outcomes of on-site and off-site work place interventions. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 27.10.2025 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00867 |