Symptom reduction due to psychosocial interventions is not accompanied by a reduction in sick leave: Results from a randomized controlled trial in primary care

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow-chart of how patients were recruited. MMI refers to multimodal intervention, CBT to cognitive behavioural therapy. Entries with bold text indicate data for the present study.

Table I. Baseline data for the three study groups.¹

	MMI (n = 45)	CBT (n = 58)	Usual care (n = 61)
Mean age (SD), years	43.1 (8.4)	42.4 (9.9)	44.5 (9.2)
Women, n (%)	38 (84)	43 (74)	51 (84)
Education, highest (%):
Elementary school	9 (20)	10 (17)	14 (23)
Secondary school	17 (38)	25 (43)	25 (41)
Higher	19 (42)	23 (40)	22 (36)
Baseline sick leave days (%) (transformed to whole days, during 30 days before the study):
0	21 (47)	35 (60)	37 (61)
1–4	0 (0)	0 (0)	1 (2)
5–20	9 (20)	9 (16)	9 (15)
> 20	15 (33)	14 (24)	14 (23)
DSM-IV diagnoses (%):
Mood disorders	24 (53.3)	35 (60.3)	29 (48.3)
Anxiety disorders	16 (35.6)	22 (37.9)	20 (33.3)
Somatoform disorders	5 (11.1)	2 (3.4)	3 (5)
None of the above (not fulfilling criteria for any DSM-IV diagnosis)	10 (22.2)	11 (19)	20 (33.3)

Note: ¹Disorders add up to more than 100% as more than one diagnosis could be present for a single patient.

Figure 2. Mean number of sick-leave days at different points in time, relative to randomization for the three groups. CAU refers to “care as usual”.

Table II. Odds ratios (95% CI) for being sick-listed as comparisons between groups at different times, relative to randomization.¹

Comparison	6 months	p-value	12 months	p-value	24 months	p-value
MMI vs. usual care	1.17 (0.41:3.33)	0.77	1.04 (0.38:2.76)	0.94	1.71 (0.49:6.39)	0.40
CBT vs. usual care	1.91 (0.70:5.44)	0.22	0.84 (0.32:2.22)	0.73	3.59 (1.19:12.43)	0.03

Note: ¹Adjustments were made for the number of days on sick leave in the month before randomization.