Ongoing care eases depression, saves money

	Tweet

Taking a continuous-care approach to treating people with depression leads to improved outcomes and saves on costs, according to a new report.

In fact, Dr. Kathryn Rost from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Aurora, told AMN Health that “health plans interested in improving the treatment they provide for depression ... need to adopt models that provide care management on an ongoing basis, rather than an acute basis.”

“These models,” she said, “provide increasingly better patient outcomes at increasingly less cost over two years.”

In particular, Rost and colleagues compared the cost-effectiveness of usual acute care with that of enhanced ongoing care in 211 adults beginning treatment for major depression in 12 primary care practices.

Practices assigned to enhanced care supplemented their usual acute care approach by encouraging patients to engage in active psychotherapy and medication treatment pharmacotherapy, and by having practice nurses provide regularly scheduled care over 2 years.

Those patients assigned to enhanced care had significantly more depression-free days over the 2 years than patients assigned to usual care (648 versus 588 days), the team reports in the Annals of Family Medicine.

In addition, incremental health plan costs decreased significantly.

These data, say the authors, provide “the first evidence that depression disease management can become more effective and less costly with time” and show that ongoing primary care-based depression management offers “good value.”

SOURCE: Annals of Family Medicine, January/February 2005.

RELATED STORIES:
Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders vary widely across clinics   Antidepressant drug treatment reduces mortality   Fombonne’s autism research is dangerously inaccurate   Adult ADHD significantly increases risk of common form of dementia   Survey shows how depression and smoking intertwine   Anabolic steroids flip the adolescent brain’s switch for aggression   Afghani Children Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress   Older Adults Have Lower Rates of Mood, Anxiety Disorders   Certain psychiatric disorders linked with risky sexual behavior in teens   Researchers Selectively Control Anxiety Pathways in the Brain   Do video games fuel mental health problems?   REM Sleep Behavior Disorder at Young Age Linked to Antidepressant Use   Prevention tactics push suicide rate to record low   Positive mood helps people see more creatively   Innovative Approach Affords Researchers Clearer View of Autism

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]