More and more sick leave due to depression

Job losses due to depression are increasing more and more

01/29/2015

The „widespread disease“ Depression is one of the most common diseases, according to the German Depressionshilfe Foundation, every fifth German citizen suffers once in a lifetime. In most cases, the disease also has a strong impact on the professional lives of those affected, which is reflected in steadily increasing absenteeism. But like the new one „depression Atlas“ the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) shows that not all occupations are affected equally here.

Dejection, drive weakness and loss of interest as typical symptoms
More and more people in this country suffer from a depression that manifests itself in a variety of symptoms such as a persistently depressed mood, lack of drive, loss of interest, anxiety and sadness. There are also various physical signs such as insomnia, dizziness, headache, shortness of breath or a lump in the throat, which in some cases are so pronounced that the typical mental symptoms are obscured and thus easily overlooked in practice (larvae resp. „masked“ Depression). Unfortunately, depression is not an isolated case, instead it is now considered „widespread disease“ and is the most common mental illness ever.

Disease fundamentally limits life expectancy
Depressed people are usually more prone to suffering than many other patients because the disease fundamentally restricts their quality of life. Often sufferers, for example, are no longer able to feel joy, instead, an unbearable condition is experienced, which even leads to suicide in about 15% of severe cases. Accordingly, many sufferers already experience getting up in the morning as a real act of violence and work as one „mountain“, that does not seem to work.

Sick sentences of 4.1 million insured evaluated
As a result, depression leads to sick leave more and more often. This goes from the new „depression Atlas“ for which the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) has evaluated the sick leave of its 4.1 million eligible insured persons. According to him, absenteeism due to depression between 2000 and 2013 increased by almost 70 percent. At the same time, the share of the workforce (employees subject to social security contributions and ALG I recipients) who were prescribed antidepressants increased in the same period by a third to a total of six percent, reports the TK. „Germany is depressed“, writes the health insurance company with regard to the results: „Statistically, everyone was on sick leave one day due to depression“, so TK boss Jens Baas.

„Germany is depressed“
According to the study, depression still affects significantly less workers than colds or back pain (1.6% of sick leave) - „but those who hit it will be out for a very long time, on average 64 days“, Baas continues. „That is, it is a very tedious disease for the patient, associated with high downtime for the farms. In addition, considering the large medical care needs of patients, depression is also an economic factor.“

Employees in call centers particularly at risk
For a company with 250 employees, this means that an average of four of its employees would be missing a good two months a year, the report says. If, in addition, the inclusion of the leave entitlement came about, then at least one job due to depression would be canceled. But not every job is affected equally here according to the TK study. Instead, especially people in industries with high stress levels and mental stress are particularly vulnerable. Often, therefore, people suffering from work in the call center (2.8 days), in geriatric care (2.5), in education (1.6) or in safety professions (1.4).

Women are more likely to get sick due to depression
Like Dr. Thomas Grobe from the AQUA (Institute for Applied Quality Assurance and Research in the Health Care System) reports that in the analysis of the data for the TK a difference between the sexes became clear: „[...] Women are on average more than 1.3 days more ill-written due to depression than men with an average of 0.8 days.“ The absenteeism would also increase significantly with increasing age - from the age of 60 years, however, the values ​​are declining again, the expert continued. In addition, the TK had for the first time also the sick leave due to depression at the local level evaluated. The result: While there was the highest absenteeism rate in Merzig-Wadern (Saarland) with an average of 1.7 days lost per day, the researchers found the best mental health in Greiz in Vogtland (0.2 depression-related days lost).

Absence alone only limited meaningful
However, according to the TK could be concluded from the absences only conditionally, such as „loaded“ the land is real, because „not everyone who has depression is on sick leave, "explains York Scheller, a psychologist at the TK. Accordingly, the antidepressant prescriptions were also evaluated, which showed that, for example, Birkenfeld (Rhineland-Palatinate) despite below-average absence (minus 48 percent ) was 20 percent above the German average for the prescription of antidepressants. (nr)