Jonas Peter Fisker defends his PhD thesis

Title

'Return to work after sick leave due to stress, anxiety or depression: Pre-intervention predictors and effects of IBBIS integrated intervention'

Time and place

Thursday, 12 November 2020 at 13:00 in Auditorium 1.1.18 at CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K and on Zoom. We encourage people to participate via Zoom. 

Click here to participate on Zoom.

Passcode: 354090.

If you would like to be present in the auditorium, please coordinate with Lisa Poulsen at lisa.poulsen@regionh.dk. Please notice that the maximum number of people allowed in the auditorium is 50. Please also notice that it is mandatory to wear a mask on campus until seated at the defence. 

Due to the COVID-19 regulations, there will unfortunately not be a reception after the defence.

Assessment committee

  • Associate Professor Stig Poulsen, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)

  • Professor Dr. Roland Willem Bart Blonk, TNO, The Netherlands

  • Associate Professor Morten Vejs Willert, Aarhus University, Denmark

Abstract

Common mental disorders, like anxiety, depression and stress conditions like distress, adjustment disorder and exhaustion disorder, have huge impact on individual wellbeing and societal costs in terms of unemployment, sick leave and disability pensions. It is estimated that the total cost of sick leave attains a level equal to 3.4 % of the Danish GNP annually. Among all mental disorders, 75 % of people are diagnosed with a common mental disorder.

The IBBIS project was developed based on an assumption that services provided for citizens on sick leave with common mental disorders in Denmark were not adequate. An integrated mental health care and vocational rehabilitation intervention was designed and tested in two RCT studies, one for stress conditions and one for anxiety and depression.

The aim of the PhD thesis has been to investigate both pre-intervention predictors of return to work (RTW) and interventions for RTW for people on sick leave with stress, anxiety or depression, and to discuss similarities and differences between these groups, in how predictors and interventions influence RTW.

At the PhD defence, the results of four studies from the IBBIS project will be presented and discussed: Two predictor studies including a systematic review and meta-analysis and an observational cohort study and two RCT-studies testing an integrated mental health care and vocational rehabilitation.