Training primary-care physicians to recognize, diagnose and manage depression: does it improve patient outcomes?

• Published in: Psychological medicine Vol. 29; no. 4; p. 833
• Main Authors: Tiemens, B G, Ormel, J, Jenner, J A, van der Meer, K, Van Os, T W, van den Brink, R H, Smit, A, van den Brink, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-07-1999
• Subjects: Adult; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Curriculum; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - drug therapy; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Inservice Training; Male; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Physicians, Family - education; Psychiatry - education; Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Treatment Outcome; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0033-2917
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291799008545

We developed a comprehensive, 20-hour training programme for primary-care physicians, that sought to improve their ability to detect, diagnose and manage depression. We evaluated the effects of physician training on patient outcomes, using a pre-post design.
In the pre-training phase of the study, we sampled 1834 consecutive patients of 17 primary-care physicians and evaluated 518 of these patients for the presence of depression. We measured outcomes of all patients with depression at 3 months and 1 year. The outcome measures were: severity of psychopathology; duration of depressive episode; and level of daily functioning. After the 17 physicians completed the training, we drew a new sample from their practices (498 of 1785 consecutive patients were evaluated for depression) and measured outcomes for the depressed patients.
We found an effect of the training on short-term outcome, particularly for patients with a recent-onset depression. At 3-month follow-up depressed patients whose physicians had received training had less severe psychopathology and patients with recent-onset depression also showed higher levels of daily functioning than patients of the same physicians prior to the training. The patients with a recent-onset depression that was recognized by trained physicians had shorter depressive episodes, but this was not statistically significant. At 1-year follow-up, all training effects had faded away.
Training primary-care physicians to recognize, diagnose and manage depression can improve short-term patient outcomes, especially for patients with a recent onset of depression. Patients suffering from a recurrent or chronic depression may need more specific interventions, both for acute treatment and long-term management.