Incidence and cost of depression after occupational injury.

OBJECTIVES

We examined if injured workers were more likely than noninjured workers to be treated for depression after an occupational injury and estimated the cost paid by group medical insurance.

METHOD: Nearly 367,900 injured and noninjured workers were drawn from the 2005 Thomson Reuters MarketScan data. Descriptive, logistic, and two-part model regression analyses were used.

RESULTS

The odds of injured workers being treated for depression within the study period were 45% higher than those of noninjured workers (95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.78). The unconditional average cost of outpatient depression treatment was 63% higher for injured workers than for noninjured workers.

CONCLUSIONS

Injured workers were more likely than noninjured workers to suffer from depression during the study period. Consequently, additional costs are incurred for treating injured workers' depression; these costs were not covered by the workers' compensation system.