Patterns of care for depressed older adults in a large-staff model HMO.
The authors examined automated pharmacy and visit data for 502 members of a large-staff model health maintenance organization (HMO) who had been diagnosed with depression and started on antidepressants by their primary-care providers. Older patients (age >/=60; n=110) were less likely than younger adults (age 18-59, n=110) to receive adequate doses of antidepressant medications for 30 or 90 days. Older adults were also less likely than younger adults to receive more than two primary-care visits for depression in the 12 weeks after receiving a new antidepressant prescription and were less likely to receive specialty mental health care in the 6 months after receiving a new antidepressant prescription.
Unützer
J
J
Center for Health Services Research, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 90024-6505, USA. unutzer@ucla.edu
Katon
W
W
Russo
J
J
Simon
G
G
Bush
T
T
Walker
E
E
Lin
E
E
Van Korff
M
M
Ludman
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000592:standards*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011613:Psychotherapy; D014861:Washington
D000928:Antidepressive Agents