Effects of rehabilitation programmes for patients on long-term sick leave for burnout: a 3-year follow-up of the REST study.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term effects of two different rehabilitation programmes for patients on long-term sick leave for burnout.


METHODS
Three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial with two 1-year group programmes: (A) cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation in combination with Qigong; and (B) Qigong alone.


METHODS
A total of 107 patients with burnout (78 women and 29 men), who all completed the 1-year rehabilitation programme per-protocol, were asked to participate in the follow-up.


METHODS
At the 3-year follow-up, data on psychological measures, sick leave and use of medication were compared between the programmes.


RESULTS
Patients in programme A reported being significantly more recovered from their burnout (p = 0.02), reported lower levels of burnout (p = 0.035), used more cognitive tools learned from the programme (p < 0.001), and had reduced their use of medication for depression (p = 0.002). No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of sick leave rates; both groups had improved.


CONCLUSIONS
A multimodal rehabilitation including cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation and Qigong showed positive effects 3 years after the end of intervention. The results indicate that, for many burnout patients on sick-leave, it takes time to implement cognitive tools and to establish new behaviours.
Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. therese.stenlund@physiother.umu.se
Therese
T
Stenlund
Maria
M
Nordin
Lisbeth Slunga
LS
Järvholm
D000328:Adult; D001945:Breathing Exercises; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012146:Rest; D018582:Sick Leave; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome