Sick leaves due to mental health double in ten years

In 2024, 440 thousand Brazilians were absent from work due to depression, anxiety, severe stress, and other mental health issues.

The numbers more than doubled compared to 2014, when absences due to mental and behavioral disorders reached 203 thousand, a study by the Ministry of Social Security found. Comparing 2024 and 2023, the increase is also appalling—67 percent.

Causes

A large proportion of leaves in 2024 were due to anxiety disorders (141,414), followed by depressive episodes (113,604), and recurrent depressive disorder (52,627).

Next come bipolar disorder (51,314), mental and behavioral disorders resulting from the use of drugs and other psychoactive substances (21,498), and reactions to severe stress and adaptation disorders (20,873).

Schizophrenia (14,778), mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol use (11,470) and cocaine use (6,873), and specific personality disorders (5,982) are also on the list of absences due to mental illness in 2024.

By way of comparison, in 2024, leaves due to anxiety disorders increased by over 400 percent from 2014, when they totaled 32 thousand. Absences due to depressive episodes nearly doubled in a decade.

A psychological evaluation

In the view of Antonio Virgílio Bittencourt Bastos, psychology professor at the Federal University of Bahia and member of Brazil’s Federal Council of Psychology, the figures demonstrate what has already been observed by specialists: a growing mental health crisis in Brazil.

“Mental illness and suffering indicators go beyond the workplace. The COVID-19 crisis has brought us this post-pandemic scenario. We live in a sick society. There’s been a profound break in the way we used to live. To a certain extent, we’re living the after-effects of this traumatic experience.”

To his judgment, part of the mental health crisis stems from larger context of restructuring as well as the accelerated dynamics of change.

“There’s a process underway. We’re in the middle of an intense process of restructuring societal life. It’s just natural that people should struggle in reacting to these changes.”

Professor Bastos says that maintaining quality of life has become one of the great challenges of this millennium. – Tomaz Silva / Agência Brasil

Concerning work, the professor pointed to even more specific factors. “The impact of the technological revolution is restructuring jobs, redefining management models, making work more precarious, and weakening ties. This makes the situation at work specific as the crisis takes on its own proportions and shades.”

He also explained that “alongside this dynamic of transformation in the world of work and drastic changes, we also live with archaic, traditional management models and practices. We have a culture that favors more authoritarian practices, and this leads to greater tensions and conflicts, not to mention more difficult interpersonal relationships.”

Quality of life

As a result of this landscape, Professor Bastos said, maintaining quality of life has become one of the great challenges of this millennium. “How can we build a more sustainable, harmonious world, a world in which people can balance family life and personal life? It’s all a big challenge.”

In his view, the mental health crisis draws attention to the role of the state in ensuring support through specific efforts that must not be short-term.

“There are palliative solutions, programs that don’t get to the root of the problem. We see a series of initiatives, but they deal with the symptoms and consequences of the problem. They don’t get to the root of the problem, the management model, the work processes.”

He advocated profound changes: “[We must] make in-depth changes to the way work is organized and relationships are established. We mustn’t think that providing psychological assistance is all we have to do to solve the problem.”