Depression diagnosis and antidepressant treatment among depressed VA primary care patients.
This study examined the extent to which 3559 VA primary care patients with depression symptomatology received depression diagnoses and/or antidepressant prescriptions. Symptomatology was classified as mild (13%), moderate (42%) or severe (45%) based on SCL-20 scores. Diagnosis and treatment was related to depression severity and other patient characteristics. Overall, 44% were neither diagnosed nor treated. Only 22% of those neither diagnosed nor treated for depression received treatment for other psychopathology. Depression treatment performance measures dependent on diagnoses and antidepressant prescriptions from administrative databases exclude undiagnosed patients with significant, treatable, symptomatology.
Liu
Chuan-Fen
CF
Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, 1100 Olive Way, Suite 1400, Seattle, WA 98101, USA.
Campbell
Duncan G
DG
Chaney
Edmund F
EF
Li
Yu-Fang
YF
McDonell
Mary
M
Fihn
Stephan D
SD
D000368:Aged; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003625:Data Collection; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs
D000928:Antidepressive Agents