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Certain psychiatric symptoms affect workplace performance more than others

Recent study findings identified specific symptoms of psychiatric disorders that affect workers’ performance, suggesting that interventions targeting these particular symptoms may be helpful in improving workplace functionality.

Researchers analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication and the National Latino and Asian American Study. The study group consisted of 7,566 men and women with a mean age of 43 years. Primary outcomes were current employment/labor force participation, weeks worked in the past year and amount of work absences in a month.

Overall, 9.3% of study participants had been diagnosed with major depressive episodes, 11% had panic attacks, 7.4% had diagnosed social phobia and 4.6% had generalized anxiety disorder. Women were more likely to have symptoms of psychiatric disorders than men. Regarding depression among men and women, symptoms such as insomnia, hypersomnia, indecisiveness and severe emotional distress most affected workplace functionality. In terms of anxiety disorders, the length of an anxious episode followed by symptoms such as uncontrollable worry, nervousness and anxiety that caused emotional distress significantly affected performance in the workplace. Major depressive episodes had the greatest effect on workplace participation; however, social phobia and panic attacks were not associated with workplace performance.

“Interventions targeting workplace consequences of mental illness may benefit not only those who meet diagnostic criteria, but also many of those with subclinical levels of symptoms,” study researcher Kajal Lahiri, PhD, of the University at Albany, State University of New York, and colleagues stated in a press release.