Mental health sick leave hits a record in Brazil: 546,254 cases in 2025

In 2025, Brazil's National Social Security Institute (INSS) granted 546,254 temporary disability benefits due to mental and behavioral disorders, the highest number ever recorded in the Ministry of Social Security's historical series. On average, that is one new sick leave every 58 seconds.

The cost of not preventing

The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that around 12 billion working days are lost every year worldwide to depression and anxiety. On the other side of the ledger, a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry showed that every dollar invested in scaling up treatment for depression and anxiety returns four dollars in better health and ability to work.

From reaction to predictive management

Since May 26, 2026, psychosocial risks have been a mandatory part of occupational risk management under Brazil's NR-1 standard. For companies and public bodies, this means identifying, measuring and monitoring factors such as work overload, harassment, lack of autonomy and conflict before they turn into illness.

That is the work of INTMP's Control Tower: self-assessments using validated scientific instruments, applied in cycles, with aggregated dashboards that show where to act first. Each individual report stays with the participant alone; managers receive only aggregated, anonymized indicators.

• Identify risk factors with internationally validated instruments.
• Track progress in continuous cycles rather than one-off surveys.
• Prioritize action by department, unit and exposure group.
• Document psychosocial risk management in the occupational risk program.