The potential impact of the Workers' Compensation System on quality of life outcomes: A clinical analysis.

It is widely recognized that the Workers' Compensation System has evolved into a costly adversarial, stress engendering set of interactions. Most prior research has examined the pathology of the individual which contributes to these costs. This paper presents an analysis of the ways that the system itself is pathogenic. Based on a model of factors comprising health-related quality of life, we analyze how the environment of the Workers' Compensation System promotes increased symptom reports, decreased functional status and negative general health perceptions while fostering destructive anxieties. We recommend that future prospective research move from a focus on the individual to a focus on the system and its interaction with the individual.