title: [Relationship of sick leave before treatment to severity of symptoms and treatment outcome in in-patients with anxiety disorders].
abstract: The aim of this study is to explore whether or not being already on sick leave at admission to a psychosomatic clinic indicates a higher level of severity of symptoms in patients with anxiety disorders, and whether or not this has an impact on therapy outcome. We examined 194 in-patients at 8 psychosomatic clinics upon admission and discharge by interview and psychometric testing. Being on sick leave before admission proved to be an indicator for higher global symptom distress as well as a higher severity of anxiety symptoms. Treatment duration was longer for the sick leave group than for the patients that had not been on sick leave, but each group experienced the same degree of change in pre-and-post treatment symptoms. We conclude that sick leave before admission does give information about illness severity and need of treatment in patients with anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Franziska.Geiser@ukb.uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geiser
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bassler
authors.forename: Hinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bents
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Carls
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Joraschky
authors.forename: Reinholde
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kriebel
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Michelitsch
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ullrich
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liedtke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients; D018582:Sick Leave