Metacognitive Therapy for Work-Related Stress: A Feasibility Study

About 25% of EU workers experience work-related stress for all or most of their working time, showing that work-related stress is a major cause of health problems for the EU population. This situation has been worsened even more by the COVID-19 restrictions embraced by employers worldwide. However, a timely and sustainable intervention protocol for treating such issues has not been developed yet. Thus, the present research shows a first effective attempt based on Metacognitive therapy (MCT) to solve this issue. MCT was practiced on four individuals suffering from chronic work-related stress. Primary outcome variables were general mental health, perceived stress, and blood pressure. Participants were assessed at multiple baselines before the start of therapy and then attended a 3- and 6-months follow-up after treatment termination. Results showed significant improvements in general mental health, perceived stress, and blood pressure in each client. Secondary outcome variables improved too-maladaptive coping strategies, avoidance behaviors, and depression symptoms-corroborating the main findings. At 3- and 6-month follow-up, results were maintained. The findings suggest that MCT might be a promising and sustainable intervention for work-related stress, although a metacognitive model for stress and large-scale RCTs need to be developed and carried out to further explore the effect of MCT on stress. Our results represent one of the first attempts to treat work-related stress via Metacognitive Therapy and support the feasibility of the treatment, both in terms of its efficacy and sustainability, in a historical moment in which work-related stress is increased worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within such a realm, our feasibility study should be followed by larger and controlled studies that, if successful, would provide various stakeholders-including organizational and institutional decision-makers-with a solid, timely and cost-effective method to help the workforce coping with work-related stress.