Disability of psychiatric patients

Abstract

In Sweden, all inhabitants over 16 years of age are covered by compulsory insurance and registered by the public insurance funds. Earlier investigations of Swedish National Health Insurance materials have shown that mental disorder is a common cause of disability pension and long term sickness benefit. The purpose of the present study was to estimate the magnitude of disability in persons with a history of psychiatric contact. — The material consisted of a geographically defined subsample of a randomized series of psychiatric patients. The local National Health Insurance records were used for estimating the rate of sickness. The amount of sickness benefit given to 194 patients (74 men and 120 women) treated at a department of psychiatry in 1962 was studied during the subsequent four years. Controls matched for sex, age and domicile were obtained from the local branches of the National Health Insurance Service. Disability pension was granted to 9 men and 15 women in the patient group, and to 4 men and 1 women in the control group. The average number of sickness benefit days per year was 4.9 times larger for male patients and 3.4 times larger for female patients, than for the corresponding controls. The higher sickness reporting in men was due to both psychiatric and physical illness. In women only sickness reporting because of psychiatric illness was significantly increased.