Effectiveness of a brief psychotherapeutic intervention for employees with psychosomatic and psychosocial complaints - pilot study of a consultation off the workplace

Abstract: 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. One-hundred twenty-seven 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

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Frontiers in psychiatry. - 11 (2020) , 00867, ISSN: 1664-0640

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Psychotherapie ; Psychische Gesundheit ; Arbeitsmedizin

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2020
• Creator: Allwang, Christine ; Marten‐Mittag, Birgitt ; Dinkel, Andreas ; Mauss, Daniel ; Lahmann, Claas

Further information

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00867
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-1678846
• Rights: Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:34 AM CEST