Can You Receive Workers’ Compensation for Mental Stress or Anxiety in Pennsylvania?

March 4, 2025 | Workers’ Compensation

Can You Receive Workers' Compensation for Mental Stress or Anxiety in Pennsylvania?

The mind and body are intricately connected, often considered two aspects of the same whole. If you experience mental stress or anxiety related to your work, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation. However, establishing a claim for psychological injuries can be more challenging than for physical injuries, as it typically requires meeting a higher burden of proof.

A Description of Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation is an administrative claim that rarely results in a lawsuit. Under normal circumstances, workers’ compensation law prevents an injured employee from suing their employer. Workers’ compensation law normally limits damages to medical expenses and a portion of lost wages. The most advantageous aspect of a workers’ compensation claim, at least from the employee’s point of view, is that they can win without proving fault.

Workers’ compensation applies to employees, not independent contractors such as commercial truckers and doctors who work for hospitals. 

Types of Workers’ Compensation Claims

There are three types of workers’ compensation claims involving psychological injuries – physical-to-mental claims, mental-to-physical claims, and mental-to-mental claims.  

Physical-to-Mental Claims

A physical-to-mental claim arises when a physical injury indirectly results in psychological injury. This is not the same as “pain and suffering,” which is merely the unavoidable psychological anguish associated with physical pain. Suppose, for example, that a construction worker falls from a scaffolding. A slip-and-fall accident can cause injury, disability, lifestyle limitations, and diminished earning capacity. All of this can cause situational depression (a/k/a reactive depression). 

Situational depression, unlike clinical depression, can be traceable to an adverse life event such as a work accident. You don’t have a physical-to-mental workers’ compensation unless there is a physical event or condition that caused your depression. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean you suffered any kind of physical illness or injury. Maybe you were exposed to a coworker’s blood during a rescue. If you had to undergo an HIV test as a consequence, the anxiety you suffered while waiting for the test results might qualify you to assert a physical-to-mental claim.   

Mental-to-Physical Claims

A mental-to-physical claim arises when you can trace a physical malady (injury or illness) to a psychological cause. The most prominent local example of this type of claim occurred when a worker suffered a heart attack due to a confrontation with their supervisor. When something like this happens, who was at fault for the confrontation is usually irrelevant. Claims like this were frequently denied until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court set its 2005 precedent in this case, Panyko v. WCAB (US Airways).

Another possible example of this type of claim is when a customer service representative deals with daily abuse from irate customers, leading to ulcers, high blood pressure, and generalized anxiety disorder. 

Mental-to-Mental Claims

A mental-to-mental claim arises when an employee develops a psychological malady, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), due to “abnormal working conditions.” Symptoms might include flashbacks, nightmares, and other problems. The law sets the bar high for abnormal working conditions. Work-related stress or even abuse is normally not enough. Here are some possible examples:

  • A corrections officer develops symptoms after witnessing a brutally violent prison riot that severely injured several co-workers.
  • An employee experiences a direct and credible threat of violence in the workplace. That might mean, for example, a client threatening a social worker with violence during a home visit.
  • A backhoe operator suffers extreme anxiety after hitting and killing an unauthorized visitor to a construction site who darted into the path of the vehicle.

Mental-to-mental claims are typically much harder to prove than physical-to-mental claims and mental-to-physical injury claims because of the lack of physical evidence.

Do You Need a Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Attorney?

Some people handle their workers’ compensation claims on their own. Sometimes, this makes sense. It makes the least sense when a complicating factor, such as a psychological injury, arises. Marzzacco Niven & Associates is a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law firm, and we have handled many such claims before. Contact us at your earliest convenience to schedule a free initial case consultation.

At Marzzacco Niven & Associates, our legal team fights to protect the rights of injured workers and their families. Call for a free consultation with an experienced Carbondale workers’ compensation lawyer.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, please contact Marzzacco Niven & Associates at the nearest location to schedule a free consultation today:

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945 East Park Drive, Suite 103 Harrisburg, PA 17111
(717) 912-6901

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