Abstract

ENGUITA MARTIN, Rosa Carmen  and  RAMOS MUNOZ, Rafael. Adjustment disorders: analysis of sickness absence episodes caused by non-work-related diseases or accidents at Ibermutuamur, Mutual Insurance Company for Occupational Accidents and Diseases, Social Security. Med. segur. trab. [online]. 2013, vol.59, n.232, pp.322-344. ISSN 1989-7790.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S0465-546X2013000300004.

Mental illnesses are a major cause of sick leave and absenteeism in industrialized countries, resulting in a burden of socio-sanitary and economic impact. One of the most important related-causes are Adjustment Disorders. Individual predisposition or vulnerability leading to their appearance and symptoms, along with the difficulty of applying diagnostic criteria and quantifiable determinants, means that many patients are misclassified in the same diagnosis. Therefore, they do not receive adequate treatment for the disease that really suffer from, generating temporary mismatch in the duration of sick leave. Due to all this, we started a review of the sick leave behavior from this disease in workers monitored for non-work-related diseases at Ibermutuamur between 2008 and 2010 in order to evaluate the results and to conclude whether some of the variables will improve the management and control of these processes by adjusting the length on behalf of the patients, their company, the mutual insurance company and the society in general. Following the completion of the observational epidemiological study according to the data recorded in the processes in our own health program system during the period of time mentioned, we can conclude that, except for some key data for management, as the fact of their higher frequency in women, and in them, the relapses and progression to total disability or the fact that besides the generic diagnostic, subtypes "Adjustment reaction with mixed emotional features" and "Adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood" are the most common and frequently observed in almost all the assessment results of the other study variables, there is no variable itself which could determine the decision-making to improve the management of sickness absence from this disease. It is essential to note that one of the major drawback found was the lack of coding of this disease in their diagnostic subtypes, which can determine a key information deficit to proper assignment of the pathology and the posterior treatment, thus affecting the evolution and the duration of sick leave and absenteeism.

Keywords : Mental illness; psychiatric disorders; adjustment reaction; sick leave.

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