Anxiety disorders and workplace-related anxieties.
BACKGROUND
Workplace-related anxieties are often connected with sick leave. There are no established instruments which allow to assess this phenomenologically heterogeneous group of disorders.


METHODS
One hundred and thirty-two psychosomatic inpatients were interviewed with a standardized diagnostic interview in respect to mental illnesses, especially primary anxiety disorders, and in addition in respect to different work-related anxiety disorders.


RESULTS
Seventy-one percent of women and 54% of men complained about work-related anxiety. 20.5% of participants are suffering from work-related panic, 58% from work-related phobia, 34.1% from work-related social phobia, 39.4% from work-related generalized anxiety, and 1.5% from work-related PTSD. There is a moderate relation between mental disorders or primary anxiety disorders and work-related anxiety. Fourteen percent of the participants did only suffer from workplace-related anxiety and did not report any other anxiety disorder outside the workplace situation.


CONCLUSIONS
There are various types of workplace-related anxieties. They are partly independent clinical phenomena deserving special diagnostic and therapeutic attention.
Linden
Michael
M
Research Group Psychosomatic Rehabilitation, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany. Michael.linden@charite.de
Muschalla
Beate
B
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*