[Pension Due to Full Reduction in Earning Capacity: Do Psychiatric Reports Meet the Quality Criteria for Socio-Medical Assessment?]

Objective: The quality of socio-medical expert opinions, which are prepared for the German Pension Insurance (GPI) in the context of applications for reduced earning capacity pension due to mental disorder, has hardly been investigated so far. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent expert medical reports on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comply with the guideline of the GPI on socio-medical reports for mental and behavioral disorders.

Methodology: To examine the quality of expert opinions, 52 socio-medical expert opinions in which a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was assigned and a performance capacity of less than three hours was determined were analyzed. The quality of the expert opinions was assessed both quantitatively by calculating quality points and qualitatively by analyzing the content. Percent agreement and Cohen's kappa were calculated for two raters to examine rater agreement based on a subsample (n=11).

Results: The analyzed appraisals scored an average of 36.1 (SD=7.4) out of a possible 92 quality points (range 22/56). In most of the expert opinions, the descriptions of participation limitations, epicrisis, and sociomedical conclusion were unsatisfactory.

Conclusion: The inadequate presentation of the functional and participation limitations in the expert opinions may not do justice to the actual facts of the case, so that the evidence of a health disorder with the corresponding participation limitations cannot be provided beyond doubt. Accordingly, measures to improve the quality of expert opinions such as training and regular quality reviews are necessary.