Relevance of mental disorders among of expertise examinations on working incapacity at the Executive Administration of National Institute of Social Security (INSS) in Juiz de Fora – Minas Gerais - Brasil

Abstract

Abstract

One of the tasks of the Forensic Medicine Division of the INSS is to evaluate a secured person’s labor capacity. To accomplish this task, subjective problems, such as Mental Disorders, represent one of the most complex medical categories to be evaluated and often appear as the reason for labor disability. To assess the relative frequency of mental disorders as main reason for the claiming of disability benefit among INSS facilities of the Executive Administration of Juiz de Fora and to discuss the relevance of these disorders on the process of expertise evaluations on working disability, considering the employment status of claimers. Retrospective study analyzing data recovered from an official data bank derived from expertise evaluations concluded between July/2004 and December/2006. Mental disorders were the third most frequent reason for presumed incapability registered, increasing from 13% to 19% from the first to the last trimester evaluated. Secured persons without formal working situation represented 66% of those that received a mental disorder diagnose and their requirements were denied more frequently than those of secured citizens who were employed at the time of the examination (38% and 26%, respectively). The frequency of grant of requirements in expertise evaluations for mental disorders decreased from 69% to 44% between the first and last trimesters evaluated. The increase of unfulfilled requests suggests a greater rigidness for the granting of health benefits by the Forensic Medicine Division of the INSS to secured individuals with a diagnosis of mental disorders during the evaluated period.

Keywords: Mental Disorders; Disability Insurance; Social Security.