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DAK-Psychoreport 2015 Around two million working people with mental health problems
Sick leave due to mental illness has already increased significantly in recent years. Now the corresponding absentee days reached a new record level, according to the result of the psychoreport 2015 of the DAK-Gesundheit. "In Germany, every 20th employee with a mental illness was on sick leave last year," reports the DAK. Extrapolated in Germany about 1.9 million people are affected by mental illness. According to the DAK Report, mental illnesses were the second most common cause of illness in 2014.
According to DAK Health, the number of missing days caused by diagnoses such as depression or adjustment disorder has tripled since 1997. In 2014, the DAK-insured employees on more than 6.3 million days sick leave for complaints, reports the health insurance. "The results of the psychoreport not only clarify the need for action. They also motivate us to come up with new offerings that will improve the supply in concrete terms, "emphasizes DAK-Gesundheit's CEO, Herbert Rebscher. These new offerings include the use of online therapies, as already tested by some health insurance companies.
Absences due to psychological problems such as depression have been increasing for years. (Image: Niki Love / fotolia.com) Drastic increase in days off due to mental illness
In total, the anonymous data of around 2.6 million employed DAK insured persons were evaluated by the IGES Institute in Berlin for the DAK Psychoreport 2015. In the past year, mental illness accounted for 16.6 percent of the total sick leave, reports the IGES Institute. Behind the diseases of the musculoskeletal system, which continue to occupy first place with just under 23 percent, mental illnesses are thus in second place among the causes of absenteeism. "The increase in absenteeism due to mental health problems has been the most noticeable development in incapacity for years," the scientists emphasize in the press release of the IGES Institute.
Depression and adjustment disorders cause most absences
The majority of days lost from mental illness are due to depression and so-called adjustment disorders, but also neurotic disorders and somatoform disorders (physical complaints without organic causes) are relatively frequent diagnoses, according to DAK. The strongest increase was observed in the adjustment disorders, which form a pathological response to severe stress. The "days lost due to this diagnosis have tripled in the last 15 years" and in the year "2014, 42 absenteeism days went back to 100 insured persons", according to the statement of the IGES Institute. With 112 days lost per 100 insured, however, depression continued to form the mental illness with the longest absences.
Burnout diagnoses decreased significantly
However, according to the DAK, the additional diagnosis of burnout clearly loses its relevance. The doctors seem to be increasingly refraining from this diagnosis. Thus, the days of absence have almost halved since the year 2011 - from about ten days per 100 insured to only 5.2 missing days in 2014. The chief physician at the Center for Mental Health of the Asklepios Klinik Hamburg-Harburg, Dr. med. According to Hans-Peter Unger, "burnout has become more of a description of a risk condition" and therefore a rare cause for sick leave. "Mental illnesses caused by chronic stress are now recognized as adjustment disorders or depression," Unger continues.
Women especially often affected
The increase in absenteeism in mental illness, according to the IGES researchers, is not only due to the developments in the modern working world, but also due to the higher sensitivity and openness to mental health problems both among family doctors and those affected themselves. The differing willingness to admit one's own psychological problems probably also plays a role in the sexually different numbers of illnesses. According to the DAK, women are "twice as likely to be on sick leave with mental health problems as men (affected in 2014: 6.5 to 3.6 percent)." On the one hand, mental illness in men would often be different in appearance and therefore not properly recognized, on the other hand If men are more likely to fear stigmatization, because they are still considered the "strong sex," Unger. But even among men show the DAK psychoreport clear rates of increase in mental illness. For example, the number of days lost due to adjustment problems among 15- to 19-year-olds has increased by almost 250 percent within nine years, reports the DAK.
Regional differences in mental illness
Furthermore, the DAK report shows marked regional differences in mental illnesses. In the new federal states, these have a significantly lower significance in relation to the total sick leave than in the old Länder, reports the IGES Institute. The eastern German states of Thuringia (13.4 percent), Saxony-Anhalt (14.1 percent), Brandenburg (14.5 percent) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (14.7 percent) have the lowest proportion of mental illnesses in total sickness. However, the increase was often particularly strong here, explains the DAK. "In Brandenburg, for example, the value has almost tripled from 2000 to 2014," according to the health insurance company. Among the West German states, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have the lowest absenteeism due to mental illness. The IGES Institute in Hamburg (22.3 percent), Schleswig-Holstein (19.2 percent), Saarland (18.8 percent) and Berlin (18.3 percent) accounted for the largest share of the sick leave rate..
First successes with the online therapy
In view of the increasing need for treatment of mental illnesses, the DAK claims to "increasingly on quality-tested online therapies." Its effectiveness is evidenced by a previously "unpublished study on the web-based program Deprexis". This shows that both the degree of depression and the quality of life improve significantly with the online therapy. Corresponding web-based programs could help those affected quickly, selectively and regardless of location, explains the DAK. Thus, the average waiting time of about six months for a therapy place could be avoided or bridged. The DAK web-based self-help program offers support for people with mild to moderate depression and can be used on a computer, laptop or smartphone, the DAK continues. "With low-threshold treatment concepts and the use of quality-tested e-health programs, we are adapting the current range to the actual needs of those affected and reducing long waiting times and misdiagnoses," stresses Herbert Rebscher.
Scientific review of web-based therapy
According to the DAK, the previously unpublished study for the review of the web-based program Deprexis was carried out together with the University of Bielefeld. Overall, the scientists had evaluated the data of 3,800 people with different degrees of depressive symptoms who participated in the program. According to the DAK, they were regularly interviewed for over a year. The effect of online therapy was very convincing. "With the support of Deprexis, the degree of depression will weaken significantly in a relatively short time," says study leader Professor Dr. med. Wolfgang Greiner in the press release of the DAK. Here it becomes clear "that the program usually helps patients directly." In addition, their professional and social functioning has improved significantly. "Particularly in the case of mental illnesses such as depression, it is good if those affected can participate in social life," emphasizes Greiner. (Fp)