Psychological complaints are the main cause of incapacity for work, reports Statistics Netherlands. Of all disability benefits, 42% can be traced back to psychological complaints.
At the end of 2020, a total of 816,000 disability benefits were provided to more than 758,000 people, of whom 365,000 were men and 394,000 women. Of all benefits, 346,000 fell within diagnoses in the main category of ‘mental disorders’. This is followed by diseases of the bone and muscular system (154,000) and diseases of the nervous system, eye and ear (84,000). Changes in the last ten years are mainly in bone and muscle diseases, where the number of diagnoses decreased by almost 20%, and developmental disorders (such as ADHD and autism), where the number of cases was almost 80% higher.
Mental disorder dominates top 5
Among women, the top 5 are psychological disorders: depressive episodes (accounting for one in ten benefits), mental retardation, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and ‘other mental disorders’. In men, dementia, depressive episodes and other mental disorders are also in the top 5, but this is supplemented by schizophrenia and mild intellectual disability.
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