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Collaborative care for depression improves treatment

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Page 1: Collaborative care for depression improves treatment

PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 416 - 14 Jun 2003

Collaborative care for depressionimproves treatment

A collaborative care programme designed to improvetreatment for patients with depression in a primary-carepopulation was associated with modest increases inboth depression-free time and treatment costs,according to researchers from the US.

They randomly assigned 354 patients with depressionat a Department of Veterans Affairs primary-care clinicto collaborative care, involving input from a psychiatrichealth team (n = 168), or to consult-liaison care, whichrepresented traditional care; costs and outcomes wereassessed over a 9-month period. The results showedthat, over the study period, significantly more patients inthe collaborative, than in the traditional care, groupwere treated for depression and received antidepressantprescriptions.

Moreover, patients in the collaborative care groupexperienced 14.6 additional depression-free dayscompared with patients in the traditional care group,over the study period. Compared with traditional care,the average additional per-patient cost associated withcollaborative care was $US237 for depression treatmentcosts and $US519 for total outpatient costs.* When onlycosts associated with depression treatment wereconsidered, the additional cost per depression-free daywith collaborative, compared with traditional, care wasabout $US24 per patient.* Costs (2000 values) were those associated with the intervention,primary-care depression visits, outpatient psychiatric healthcare visits,antidepressant prescriptions, and inpatient stays.

Liu C-F, et al. Cost-effectiveness of collaborative care for depression in a primarycare veteran population. Psychiatric Services 54: 698-704, May 2003 800941718

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 14 Jun 2003 No. 4161173-5503/10/0416-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved