Common mental disorders are a leading cause of long-term sickness absence and disability pensioning.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a 5–15 session work-focused CBT integrating individual job support for people struggling with work participation due to common mental disorders.

Compared to usual care, increases the intervention work participation 12–18 months post baseline, and does it improve mental health and health-related quality of life as secondary outcomes.

The study was a randomized controlled multicenter trial with six secondary care centers, but with possibility for self-referrals. A total of 1416 potential participants were considered for inclusion, 197 failed inclusion criteria, 26 did not consent, leaving 1193 participants (67% female) to be randomized. The participants included both people on sick leave, people at risk of going on sick leave, and people on long-term benefits (>12 months). Primary outcome data were registry based, eliminating loss to follow-up.

Compared to usual care, participants in the intervention group had higher work participation (44.2% vs 37.2%, diff: 6.9%, P=0.015) at 12 months follow-up. The difference remained significant after 18 months (diff: 7.8%, P=0.018), and was even stronger for those on long-term benefits (diff: 12.2%, P=0.007). The intervention group also reduced their depression (t=3.44, df=625, P=<0.001) and anxiety symptoms (t=2.06, df=625, P=0.040), and increased their health related quality of life (t=2.45, df=616, P=0.015), more than the control group.

A work-focused CBT and individual job support was more effective than usual care in increasing work participation for people with common mental disorders.