Teamwork Treats Depression in Kids
January 19, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- After recent controversies about the safety and effectiveness of treatment for depression in children, come results from a new study showing a collaborative-care program that improves treatment for adolescents.
The model program features primary care physicians, nurses and mental health providers working together to bring the best depression treatments into primary care clinics. This approach used nurses and therapists in the clinics who were trained in cognitive behavior therapy.
"Most teens visit a primary care doctor or nurse each year, and these visits provide important opportunities to identify teens suffering from depression and provide them with optimal care," says principal investigator Joan Asarnow, Ph.D., from the University California, Los Angeles.
Researchers examined 418 primary care patients between ages 13 and 21 with depression symptoms. Patients either received standard care or care using the model program. For the model program, families and patients chose (with their clinicians) among possible treatment options including cognitive-behavior therapy and medication.
Patients offered the model program were significantly less likely to report severe depression compared with adolescents who received standard treatment (31 percent vs. 42 percent). In addition, they received more mental health care. Patients treated with the model program also reported fewer depressive symptoms, improved quality of life, and greater satisfaction with their mental health care.
When offered a choice of treatments in the model program, there was a tendency to choose psychotherapy over medication. This highlights, say the authors, the value of increasing the availability of effective talk therapies.
"Given the results of untreated depression, the study results should encourage adolescents and parents to speak to their doctors and nurses about depressive symptoms and seek effective care," Asarnow says. Depression leading to suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, published online Jan. 19, 2005
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