Introduction Even though the number of recognised cases by the national health insurance system is improving in France (number of yearly recognised cases>300 since 2014), it is far from reflecting the reality of psychosocial risk at work. Data issued from health monitoring networks help to bring out these occupational health issues and to set priorities for prevention.

Our aim was to describe the main characteristics of work-related mental diseases (WRMD) from data provided by the French national occupational disease surveillance and prevention network (RNV3P).

Methods The RNV3P is constituted by 31 occupational disease centres in French university hospitals and 10 occupational health services. Cases were collected from the RNV3P database between 2001 and 2015. The classifications used were ICD-10 for diseases, ISCO-88 for occupations and NAF93 (edited by the French National Institute for Statistics) for occupational sectors. For exposure, we used a specific thesaurus adapted for psychosocial risk factors. Cases included are mental disorders for which the causal link between work and disease was estimated at least possible.

Results Between 2001 and 2015, 28 697 cases of WRMD (32% men, 68% women) were collected. The disorders most frequently diagnosed were anxiety disorders (38,4%), depressive episode or recurrent depressive disorders (33.3%), reaction to severe stress and adjustment disorder (17.2%). The main occupational risk factors were factors related to management and work organisation, experienced bullying, violence, conflict and relational difficulties in work, and low decisional latitude. Consulting women worked mainly in health and social sector (20.2%), services (17.3%), trade (14.8%) and administration (10.8%); consulting men mainly in industries (19.7%), services (16.0%), trade (14.6%), and administration (8.7%). Significant temporal trends will be presented.

Discussion The RNV3P provides important data to assist in the recognition of work-related mental illnesses and to carry out preventive actions in the sectors and enterprises most concerned.