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Alert system effectively indicates primary care patients with mental health needs

PHILADELPHIA — Findings presented here indicated the EpicCare “best practices alert” effectively identified primary care patients with depression and anxiety.

Researchers prompted primary care physicians (PCP) from 26 primary care offices in Pittsburgh to refer patients with depression or anxiety to an NIMH-funded trial in response to an EpiCare electronic medical record system “best practices alert.” The alert automatically sounded when an individual aged 18 to 75 years had depression, anxiety or panic entered as first visit diagnosis.

Study participants (n = 704) were randomly assigned 3:3:1 to 6 months of care manager-guided access to the Beating the Blues computerized CBT program, guided access to the Beating the Blues plus access to a moderated Internet support group, or usual care from a PCP. Participants had a mean age of 43 years.

Sixty-four percent of participants met DSM criteria for depression and 30% met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder.

Participants had a mean score of 31.4 on the mental health component of the Short-Form 12 Health Survey, 13.3 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and 12.9 on the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale.

“EpicCare ‘best practice alerts’ are a highly efficient method to identify depressed and anxious patients to enroll into a clinical trial,” the researchers wrote. “Analyses are ongoing and we will present the OT Trial’s main outcomes and detail how study patients utilized the Beating the Blues [computerized CBT] program and our Internet support group at the Symposium.” – by Amanda Oldt

Reference:

Rollman B, et al. The online treatments Trial: 12-month main outcomes. Presented at: Anxiety and Depression Association of America Conference; March 31-April 3, 2016; Philadelphia.

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