ArticleHealth psychology open
Defining work-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (W-CBT) and whether it is effective at facilitating return to work for people experiencing mental health conditions: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.
Article in Health psychology open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Work-focused cognitive behavioural therapy for common mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the return-to-work mode of precarious workers with mental health issues: reliability, validity, and usability of the REMODE-tool.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of Psychotherapeutic Consultation at Work Compared to Care as Usual for Employees with Common Mental Disorders or Subthreshold Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Trial in Germany.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2025Article
- Metacognitive therapy and work-focus for patients with depression, anxiety or comorbid depression and anxiety on sick leave: a single-centre, open-label randomised controlled trial.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Work-focused therapy in an internet-based CBT format - A mixed methods feasibility study.Internet interventions · 2025Article
- Associations between employment status, type of occupation, and mental health problems in a treatment seeking sample.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is unclear what constitutes Work Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (W-CBT). This review sought to define W-CBT and ascertain its effectiveness at facilitating return to work (RTW) for people experiencing mental health conditions. A systematic review and narrative synthesis were undertaken. Five databases were searched (Medline, ProQuest, PsychInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science). English publications with an intervention combining CBT with RTW were selected. Quality checklists from the Joanna Briggs Institute were applied. Searching yielded 16,863 results. 23 moderate-to-high quality studies from 25 articles were included (13 experimentally designed studies, 3 pilots/case studies and 7 reviews). Results indicated W-CBT is effective at facilitating RTW for mild-to-moderate mental health conditions. For a program to be labelled W-CBT it is recommended it is (1) a stand-alone intervention; (2) delivered with an understanding RTW is the goal; and, (3) the CBT components are always framed by matters, subjects and contexts related to work.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.