Treating depression in the workplace pays off for workers and employers

Employers prepared to pick up the cost of providing treatment for depression amongst their workers could reap benefits in terms of improved productivity and greater job retention.

A study conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health found that those workers who participated in a program that included telephone outreach intervention had fewer symptoms, worked more hours and stayed in their job longer than participants the receiving usual care.

Depression is a costly business and places enormous burdens on society; experts believe depression costs the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars each year in terms of loss of productivity alone.

Depression is among the most costly of all health problems for employers, and though there is ample evidence that there are effective treatments, many depressed workers are untreated or inadequately treated.

Even those employers who purchase corporate health benefits many often do not invest in enhanced depression screening-treatment programs because of the uncertainty of the value of such investments.

Dr. Philip S. Wang and his colleagues examined the impact of a depression outreach-treatment program on the outcomes of depression symptom relief, job retention, sickness absence, and increased work productivity.

Their two-part randomized controlled trial included 604 employees covered by a managed behavioral health plan who were identified in a 2-stage screening process as having significant depression; 304 employees were enrolled in the enhanced care program while 300 received the program's usual care.

Those employees reluctant to enter treatment were offered structured cognitive behavioral psychotherapy exclusively via the telephone.

The telephonic outreach and care management program encouraged workers to enter outpatient treatment such as psychotherapy and/or antidepressant medication, monitored treatment quality continuity, and attempted to improve treatment by giving recommendations to clinicians.

The researchers found that the severity of the depression was significantly lower in the intervention group than in the usual care group at 6 months and at 12 months, and that patients in the intervention group were more likely to recover.

It was also found that this group also worked significantly more hours and had a higher rate of job retention.

The researchers say the enhanced depression care of workers benefited the workers as well as the workplace outcomes, particularly in terms of recovered hiring, training, and salary costs.

They say many employers would experience a positive return on investment from outreach and enhanced treatment of depressed workers.

The study, the "Enhanced Depression Treatment and Work Outcomes," is published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).