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Use of Decision Support Tools for Treatment Algorithms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent, debilitating disorder that is often chronic, recurrent, and costly, with the economic burden in the United States for the year 2000 exceeding $83 billion. Recent data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) indicate that MDD has a lifetime prevalence of 16.2% and a 12-month prevalence of 6.6% in the US. Among those reporting at least one episode of MDD in the previous 12 months, mean episode duration was 16 weeks. Roughly 60% of patients experienced role impairment that was “severe” or “very severe,” and nearly 80% reported comorbid disorders as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, with MDD only rarely being primary. Although 51.6% of patients with MDD received health care treatment for the illness, treatment was “adequate,” as defined by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the American Psychiatric Association guidelines (ie, ≥4 outpatient visits with any type of physician for pharmacotherapy that included use of either an antidepressant or a mood stabilizer for ≥30 days or ≥8 outpatient visits with any professional in the specialty mental health sector for psychotherapy lasting a mean of ≥30 visits) in 41.9% of treated cases. Only 21.6% of all MDD patients in the NCS-R, therefore, received minimal guideline-level treatment.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007
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