Adoecimento mental e as relações com o trabalho: estudo com trabalhadores portadores de transtorno mental

Abstract

Background: Mental disorders are the third most frequent cause of long sick leaves in Brazil. A discussion on the relationship between work and mental health is relevant for the attempts to change its current situation. Objectives: To investigate the perception of patients cared at a psychiatric hospital in Northeastern Brazil relative to the relationship between their illness and job. Methods: Descriptive-exploratory study with qualitative approach in which 10 patients under treatment at a psychiatric hospital in Northeastern Brazil were subjected to semi-structured interviews to investigate their perception of the relationship between their illness and job. The data were obtained in interviews, processed using software IRaMuTeQ and analyzed based on the descending hierarchical classification technique. Results: The textual corpus was categorized into six classes taking four aspects into account: characterization of participants, occupational data, health data relative to onset of illness and quest for treatment and lexical analysis. Conclusion: The participants perceived work as a factor of influence on their mental illness inasmuch as it might influence their personal relationships and be a source of stress and sleep disorders. Thus the results corroborate the current Brazilian and international literature on mental illness and its relationship with work.