Werden psychisch Kranke zu schnell in die Rente „abgeschoben”?

OBJECTIVE: a) Does the psychiatric expertise confirm the claimed psychiatric diagnoses in patients applying for a disability pension due to a psychiatric (co)morbidity? b) Had the patients received adequate psychiatric treatment before being sent for the psychiatric disability expertise? METHODS: Key data of 101 psychiatric expertises done in 2002 on behalf of the Swiss invalidity insurance/Basel were analysed. RESULTS: a) 17% did not have a psychiatric diagnosis affecting the ability to work. In 50%, the ability to work was reduced by max. 30%, i. e. the prerequisites of a pension were not met. b) Patients with a psychiatric diagnosis affecting the ability to work: 50% reported to take a specific psychotropic medication, but only in 40% of them (i. e. 20% of the patients with a psychiatric disorder) the blood level was within the therapeutic range; only 35 % reported to have "some form of psychotherapy"; only 15% had been previously hospitalized. CONCLUSIONS: Many of the 101 patients applying for a disability pension had not been sufficiently diagnosed and had not received adequate psychiatric/psychotherapeutic treatment before the expertise.