Effects of rehabilitation programmes for patients on long-term sick leave for burnout: A 3-year follow-up of the REST study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the long-term effects of two different rehabilitation programmes for patients on long-term sick leave for burnout. Design: Three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial with two 1-year group programmes: (A) cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation in combination with Qigong; and (B) Qigong alone. Patients: A total of 107 patients with burnout (78 women and 29 men), who all completed the 1-year rehabilitation programme per-protocol, were asked to participate in the follow-up. Methods: At the 3-year follow-up, data on psychological measures, sick leave and use of medication were compared between the programmes. Results: Patients in programme A reported being significantly more recovered from their burnout (p = 0. 02), reported lower levels of burnout (p = 0. 035), used more cognitive tools learned from the programme (p < 0. 001), and had reduced their use of medication for depression (p = 0. 002). No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of sick leave rates; both groups had improved. Conclusion: A multimodal rehabilitation including cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation and Qigong showed positive effects 3 years after the end of intervention. The results indicate that, for many burnout patients on sick-leave, it takes time to implement cognitive tools and to establish new behaviours.