Operationalizing integrated care on a clinical level: the INTERMED project

During the last 10 years the INTERMED method has been developed as a generic method for the assessment of bio-psychosocial health risks and health needs and for planning of integrated treatment. The INTERMED has been conceptualized to counteract divisions and fragmentation of medical care. Designed to enhance the communication between patients and the health providers as well as between different professions and disciplines, the INTERMED is a visualized, action-oriented decision-support tool. This article presents various aspects of the INTERMED, such as its relevance, description, scoring, the related patient interview and treatment planning, scientific evaluation, implementation, and support for the method.

Medical inpatients at risk of extended hospital stay and poor discharge health status: detection with COMPRI and INTERMED

OBJECTIVE

To detect the patients in medical wards at risk of extended LOS and poor discharge health status with the use of complexity prediction instrument (COMPRI) and interdisciplinary medicine (INTERMED) instruments.

METHODS

STUDY 1: In a sample of 275 consecutively admitted medical inpatients, a hierarchical cluster analysis on INTERMED variables was performed. The clusters were compared on length of hospital stay (LOS) and Short Form 36 (SF-36) at discharge. STUDY 2: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to optimal cut-off points for the COMPRI and INTERMED. Patients detected with COMPRI and INTERMED were then compared with undetected patients on LOS and SF-36.

RESULTS

STUDY 1: In concordance with previous findings, a cluster of patients with high biopsychosocial vulnerability was identified with significantly higher scores on LOS (p <.05) and lower scores on SF-36 (p <.001) than patients in other clusters. STUDY 2: A cut-off point for the COMPRI of 5/6 was found to detect patients at risk of long LOS. A cut off score for the INTERMED of 20/21 was found to detect patients at risk of poor discharge health status. Patients detected with COMPRI and INTERMED had a significantly longer LOS (p <.001) and a poorer discharge health status (SF-36 MCS: p <.001; SF-36 PCS: p =.05) than nondetected patients. Of the detected patients, 37% had an extended hospital stay and poor discharge health status; of the nondetected patients, this was only 7%.

CONCLUSIONS

The COMPRI-INTERMED can help to detect complex patients admitted to medical wards within the first days of admission, and rule out those with a small chance of poor outcomes.

Relationship between left ventricular dysfunction and depression following myocardial infarction: data from the MIND-IT

AIMS

Depression in patients following myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with an increased risk of mortality, but this association may be confounded by cardiac disease severity. We explored the relationship between left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and depression in MI patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS

In the Myocardial Infarction and Depression-Intervention Trial (MIND-IT), 1989 MI patients were assessed for depressive symptoms [Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) t = 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-MI]. Patients with BDI score > or =10 were assessed for the presence of International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) depressive disorder (t = 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-MI). Patients were divided into categories according to their LVEF during hospitalization, i.e. LVEF <30%, LVEF 30-45%, LVEF 45-60%, and LVEF > or = 60%. During hospitalization, presence of depressive symptoms was higher in patients with LV dysfunction. A relationship was found between LVEF and ICD-10 depressive disorder, i.e. a lower LVEF was associated with a higher rate of depression from 3-12 months post-MI (P < 0.01). Levels of LVEF inversely correlated with the BDI score at 3 months post-MI. Associations persisted after adjustment for demographics, risk factors for coronary artery disease, co-morbidity, Killip class, and baseline BDI score.

CONCLUSION

In MI patients, the rate of depression and the severity of depressive symptoms are significantly related to the severity of LV dysfunction. The association between depression and LV dysfunction must be acknowledged when evaluating the prognostic effects of depression in cardiac patients.

Depression screening and patient outcomes in cancer: a systematic review

Background

Several practice guidelines recommend screening for depression in cancer care, but no systematic reviews have examined whether there is evidence that depression screening benefits cancer patients. The objective was to evaluate the potential benefits of depression screening in cancer patients by assessing the (1) accuracy of depression screening tools; (2) effectiveness of depression treatment; and (3) effect of depression screening, either alone or in the context of comprehensive depression care, on depression outcomes.

Methods

Data sources were CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, ISI, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and SCOPUS databases through January 24, 2011; manual journal searches; reference lists; citation tracking; trial registry reviews. Articles on cancer patients were included if they (1) compared a depression screening instrument to a valid criterion for major depressive disorder (MDD); (2) compared depression treatment with placebo or usual care in a randomized controlled trial (RCT); (3) assessed the effect of screening on depression outcomes in a RCT.

Results

There were 19 studies of screening accuracy, 1 MDD treatment RCT, but no RCTs that investigated effects of screening on depression outcomes. Screening accuracy studies generally had small sample sizes (median = 17 depression cases) and used exploratory methods to set sample-specific cutoff scores that varied substantially across studies. A nurse-delivered intervention for MDD reduced depressive symptoms moderately (effect size = 0.37).

Conclusions

The one treatment study reviewed reported modest improvement in depressive symptoms, but no evidence was found on whether or not depression screening in cancer patients, either alone or in the context of optimal depression care, improves depression outcomes compared to usual care. Depression screening in cancer should be evaluated in a RCT in which all patients identified as depressed, either through screening or via physician recognition and referral in a control group, have access to comprehensive depression care.

Depression following myocardial infarction: first-ever versus ongoing and recurrent episodes

BACKGROUND

Depression following myocardial infarction (MI) can be a first-ever episode for some, whereas for others, it may represent a recurrent episode or one that was present at the onset of the infarction. We investigated if there are differences in pre- and post-MI characteristics between these subtypes.

METHODS

Four hundred sixty-eight patients admitted for an MI were assessed for the presence of an ICD-10 depressive disorder following MI. A comparison was made between first-ever and ongoing or recurrent depression on demographic and cardiac data, personality, and depression characteristics.

RESULTS

Depressive disorder during the first post-MI year was present in 25.4% of the MI patients (n = 119), and almost half were ongoing or recurrent (n = 53, 44.5%). Recurrent and ongoing depression was related to high neuroticism (Z = 2.77, P < .01), whereas first-ever depression was associated with MI severity (poor left ventricular ejection fraction: Z = 1.64, P = .05; PTCA or CABG during hospitalization: Z = 1.88, P = .03; arrhythmic events: Z = 1.49, P = .06).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that in the first-ever post-MI depression cases, depression may be triggered by the severity of the MI, whereas ongoing and recurrent depression is more related to personality. Future research should address the question whether these subtypes of depression differ in cardiovascular prognosis and response to psychiatric treatment.

Family burden related to mental and physical disorders in the world: results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys

OBJECTIVE

To assess prevalence and correlates of family caregiver burdens associated with mental and physical conditions worldwide.

METHODS

Cross-sectional community surveys asked 43,732 adults residing in 19 countries of the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys about chronic physical and mental health conditions of first-degree relatives and associated objective (time, financial) and subjective (distress, embarrassment) burdens. Magnitudes and associations of burden are examined by kinship status and family health problem; population-level estimates are provided.

RESULTS

Among the 18.9-40.3% of respondents in high, upper-middle, and low/lower-middle income countries with first-degree relatives having serious health problems, 39.0-39.6% reported burden. Among those, 22.9-31.1% devoted time, 10.6-18.8% had financial burden, 23.3-27.1% reported psychological distress, and 6.0-17.2% embarrassment. Mean caregiving hours/week was 12.9-16.5 (83.7-147.9 hours/week/100 people aged 18+). Mean financial burden was 15.1% of median family income in high, 32.2% in upper-middle, and 44.1% in low/lower-middle income countries. A higher burden was reported by women than men, and for care of parents, spouses, and children than siblings.

CONCLUSIONS

The uncompensated labor of family caregivers is associated with substantial objective and subjective burden worldwide. Given the growing public health importance of the family caregiving system, it is vital to develop effective interventions that support family caregivers.

Case and care complexity in the medically ill

The authors have argued that complexity in general health care is increasingly prevalent because of the increase in patients who have multimorbid conditions, and the increased professional and technical possibilities of medicine. In the increasingly complex care systems, it is necessary-specifically when treating patients in need of integrated care by several providers-that an optimal match between case and care complexity be found in order to prevent poor outcomes in this vulnerable group. The authors discussed several approaches to case complexity that can be identified in the literature. Most of them seem unsuitable for adjusting case and care complexity, and inadequate for designing multidisciplinary care. Theoretic approaches to case complexity may be of interest, but did not result in clinically meaningful information. The INTERMED, which can be considered the first empirically based instrument to link case and care complexity, is an attempt to improve care delivery and outcomes for the complex medically ill.

The association between neuroticism and self-reported common somatic symptoms in a population cohort

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypotheses that (1) neuroticism is associated with self-reported somatic symptoms; (2) this association is especially found with regard to psychosomatic symptoms; and (3) it is not solemnly explained by somatic reflections of psychological distress.

METHODS

We studied the cross-sectional association between neuroticism (as measured by EPQ-RSS-N), psychological distress (as measured by GHQ-12 sum score), and the occurrence of 22 common somatic symptoms by linear and logistic regression analyses in a population cohort of 6894 participants.

RESULTS

Neuroticism is more strongly associated with the total number of somatic symptoms reported (beta=.32) than GHQ-12 sum score (beta=.15) and well-established risk markers such as gender (beta=.11) and age (beta=.04). Neuroticism was associated with all symptoms in individual logistic regressions controlled for age, gender, and psychological distress. Neuroticism is significantly more strongly related to psychosomatic symptoms (beta=.36) than to infectious/allergic symptoms (beta=.28).

CONCLUSION

In a large, population-based cohort, we confirmed that neuroticism is associated with self-reported somatic symptoms. The associations were not attributable to somatic reflections of psychological distress associated with neuroticism and were relatively strong with respect to psychosomatic symptoms. Future studies should include both objective and subjective measures of health to study the mechanisms that connect neuroticism and ill health.

Somatic symptom overlap in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores following myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND

Depression measures that include somatic symptoms may inflate severity estimates among medically ill patients, including those with cardiovascular disease.

AIMS

To evaluate whether people receiving in-patient treatment following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) had higher somatic symptom scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) than a non-medically ill control group matched on cognitive/affective scores.

METHOD

Somatic scores on the BDI-II were compared between 209 patients admitted to hospital following an AMI and 209 psychiatry out-patients matched on gender, age and cognitive/affective scores, and between 366 post-AMI patients and 366 undergraduate students matched on gender and cognitive/affective scores.

RESULTS

Somatic symptoms accounted for 44.1% of total BDI-II score for the 209 post-AMI and psychiatry out-patient groups, 52.7% for the 366 post-AMI patients and 46.4% for the students. Post-AMI patients had somatic scores on average 1.1 points higher than the students (P<0.001). Across groups, somatic scores accounted for approximately 70% of low total scores (BDI-II <4) v. approximately 35% in patients with total BDI-II scores of 12 or more.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings contradict assertions that self-report depressive symptom measures inflate severity scores in post-AMI patients. However, the preponderance of somatic symptoms at low score levels across groups suggests that BDI-II scores may include a small amount of somatic symptom variance not necessarily related to depression in post-AMI and non-medically ill respondents.

Association Between Chronic Physical Conditions and the Effectiveness of Collaborative Care for Depression: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE

Collaborative care is an intensive care model involving several health care professionals working together, typically a physician, a case manager, and a mental health professional. Meta-analyses of aggregate data have shown that collaborative care is particularly effective in people with depression and comorbid chronic physical conditions. However, only participant-level analyses can rigorously test whether the treatment effect is influenced by participant characteristics, such as chronic physical conditions.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether the effectiveness of collaborative care for depression is moderated by the presence, type, and number of chronic physical conditions.

DATA SOURCES

Data were obtained from MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and references from relevant systematic reviews. The search and collection of eligible studies was ongoing until May 22, 2015.

STUDY SELECTION

This was an update to a previous meta-analysis. Two independent reviewers were involved in the study selection process. Randomized clinical trials that compared the effectiveness of collaborative care with usual care in adults with depression and reported measured changes in depression severity symptoms at 4 to 6 months after randomization were included in the analysis. Key search terms included depression, dysthymia, anxiety, panic, phobia, obsession, compulsion, posttraumatic, care management, case management, collaborative care, enhanced care, and managed care.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Individual participant data on baseline demographics and chronic physical conditions as well as baseline and follow-up depression severity symptoms were requested from authors of the eligible studies. One-step meta-analysis of individual participant data using appropriate mixed-effects models was performed.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Continuous outcomes of depression severity symptoms measured using self-reported or observer-rated measures.

RESULTS

Data sets from 31 randomized clinical trials including 36 independent comparisons (N = 10 962 participants) were analyzed. Individual participant data analyses found no significant interaction effects, indicating that the presence (interaction coefficient, 0.02 [95% CI, -0.10 to 0.13]), numbers (interaction coefficient, 0.01 [95% CI, -0.01 to 0.02]), and types of chronic physical conditions do not influence the treatment effect.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

There is evidence that collaborative care is effective for people with depression alone and also for people with depression and chronic physical conditions. Existing guidance that recommends limiting collaborative care to people with depression and physical comorbidities is not supported by this individual participant data meta-analysis.

Bidirectional prospective associations between physical activity and depressive symptoms. The TRAILS Study

PURPOSE

Low levels of physical activity (PA) have been shown to be associated with depression in adults. The few studies that focused on adolescents yielded mixed and inconsistent results. Efforts to examine the direction of this relationship have been inconclusive up to now. The aims of this study were therefore to investigate (1) the direction of the inverse association between PA and depressive symptoms over time, and (2) whether these associations are specific to particular clusters of depressive symptoms in adolescents.

METHODS

Depressive symptoms and PA were assessed in a population sample of adolescents (N = 2,230) who were measured at three waves between age 10 and age 17. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Affective Problems scale of the Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist, whereas PA was operationalized as the amount of time spent on physical exercise. Structural equation modeling was used to examine bidirectional effects of PA and depressive symptoms over time.

RESULTS

We found significant cross-lagged paths from prior PA to later depression as well as from prior depression to later PA (beta values = -.039 to -.047). After subdividing depression into affective and somatic symptoms, the affective symptoms were reciprocally related to PA, whereas the paths between somatic symptoms and PA did not reach statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS

An inverse bidirectional association between PA and general depressive symptoms was observed. This association was restricted to affective symptoms.

Cortisol and α-Amylase Secretion Patterns between and within Depressed and Non-Depressed Individuals

OBJECTIVES

Associations between biological stress markers and depression are inconsistent across studies. We assessed whether inter- and intra-individual variability explain these inconsistencies.

METHODS

Pair-matched depressed and non-depressed participants (N = 30) collected saliva thrice a day for 30 days, resulting in 90 measurements per individual. The relationships between measures of stress-system function and depression were examined at the group level by means of mixed model analyses, and at the individual level by means of pair-matched comparisons. The analyses were repeated after adjusting for time-varying lifestyle factors by means of time-series regression analyses.

RESULTS

Cortisol and α-amylase levels were higher, the α-amylase/cortisol ratio larger, and the daily cortisol slope steeper in the depressed compared to the non-depressed group. Adjusting for lifestyle factors and antidepressant use reduced the associations under study. In 40%-60% of the matched comparisons, depressed individuals had higher cortisol and α-amylase levels, a larger α-amylase/cortisol ratio, and a steeper daily slope than their non-depressed match, regardless of adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our group-level findings were mostly in line with the literature but generalization to individuals appeared troublesome. Findings of studies on this topic should be interpreted with care, because in clinical practice the focus is on individuals instead of groups.

The association between psychotic experiences and disability: results from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

OBJECTIVE

While psychotic experiences (PEs) are known to be associated with a range of mental and general medical disorders, little is known about the association between PEs and measures of disability. We aimed to investigate this question using the World Mental Health surveys.

METHOD

Lifetime occurrences of six types of PEs were assessed along with 21 mental disorders and 14 general medical conditions. Disability was assessed with a modified version of the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between PEs and high disability scores (top quartile) with various adjustments.

RESULTS

Respondents with PEs were more likely to have top quartile scores on global disability than respondents without PEs (19.1% vs. 7.5%; χ²  = 190.1, P < 0.001) as well as greater likelihood of cognitive, social, and role impairment. Relationships persisted in each adjusted model. A significant dose-response relationship was also found for the PE type measures with most of these outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychotic experiences are associated with disability measures with a dose-response relationship. These results are consistent with the view that PEs are associated with disability regardless of the presence of comorbid mental or general medical disorders.

Pediatric-Onset and Adult-Onset Separation Anxiety Disorder Across Countries in the World Mental Health Survey

OBJECTIVE

The age-at-onset criterion for separation anxiety disorder was removed in DSM-5, making it timely to examine the epidemiology of separation anxiety disorder as a disorder with onsets spanning the life course, using cross-country data.

METHOD

The sample included 38,993 adults in 18 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health Surveys. The WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess a range of DSM-IV disorders that included an expanded definition of separation anxiety disorder allowing onsets in adulthood. Analyses focused on prevalence, age at onset, comorbidity, predictors of onset and persistence, and separation anxiety-related role impairment.

RESULTS

Lifetime separation anxiety disorder prevalence averaged 4.8% across countries (interquartile range [25th-75th percentiles]=1.4%-6.4%), with 43.1% of lifetime onsets occurring after age 18. Significant time-lagged associations were found between earlier separation anxiety disorder and subsequent onset of internalizing and externalizing DSM-IV disorders and conversely between these disorders and subsequent onset of separation anxiety disorder. Other consistently significant predictors of lifetime separation anxiety disorder included female gender, retrospectively reported childhood adversities, and lifetime traumatic events. These predictors were largely comparable for separation anxiety disorder onsets in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and across country income groups. Twelve-month separation anxiety disorder prevalence was considerably lower than lifetime prevalence (1.0% of the total sample; interquartile range=0.2%-1.2%). Severe separation anxiety-related 12-month role impairment was significantly more common in the presence (42.4%) than absence (18.3%) of 12-month comorbidity.

CONCLUSIONS

Separation anxiety disorder is a common and highly comorbid disorder that can have onset across the lifespan. Childhood adversity and lifetime trauma are important antecedents, and adverse effects on role function make it a significant target for treatment.

Diagnostic heterogeneity in psychiatry: towards an empirical solution

The launch of the 5th version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) has sparked a debate about the current approach to psychiatric classification. The most basic and enduring problem of the DSM is that its classifications are heterogeneous clinical descriptions rather than valid diagnoses, which hampers scientific progress. Therefore, more homogeneous evidence-based diagnostic entities should be developed. To this end, data-driven techniques, such as latent class- and factor analyses, have already been widely applied. However, these techniques are insufficient to account for all relevant levels of heterogeneity, among real-life individuals. There is heterogeneity across persons (p:for example, subgroups), across symptoms (s:for example, symptom dimensions) and over time (t:for example, course-trajectories) and these cannot be regarded separately. Psychiatry should upgrade to techniques that can analyze multi-mode (p-by-s-by-t) data and can incorporate all of these levels at the same time to identify optimal homogeneous subgroups (for example, groups with similar profiles/connectivity of symptomatology and similar course). For these purposes, Multimode Principal Component Analysis and (Mixture)-Graphical Modeling may be promising techniques.

Associations between DSM-IV mental disorders and subsequent heart disease onset: beyond depression

BACKGROUND

Prior studies on the depression-heart disease association have not usually used diagnostic measures of depression, or taken other mental disorders into consideration. As a result, it is not clear whether the association between depression and heart disease onset reflects a specific association, or the comorbidity between depression and other mental disorders. Additionally, the relative magnitude of associations of a range of mental disorders with heart disease onset is unknown.

METHODS

Face-to-face household surveys were conducted in 19 countries (n=52,095; person years=2,141,194). The Composite International Diagnostic Interview retrospectively assessed lifetime prevalence and age at onset of 16 DSM-IV mental disorders. Heart disease was indicated by self-report of physician's diagnosis, or self-report of heart attack, together with their timing (year). Survival analyses estimated associations between first onset of mental disorders and subsequent heart disease onset.

RESULTS

After comorbidity adjustment, depression, panic disorder, specific phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorders were associated with heart disease onset (ORs 1.3-1.6). Increasing number of mental disorders was associated with heart disease in a dose-response fashion. Mood disorders and alcohol abuse were more strongly associated with earlier onset than later onset heart disease. Associations did not vary by gender.

CONCLUSIONS

Depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders were significantly associated with heart disease onset; depression was the weakest predictor. If confirmed in future prospective studies, the breadth of psychopathology's links with heart disease onset has substantial clinical and public health implications.

Implementing psychiatric interventions on a medical ward: effects on patients' quality of life and length of hospital stay

OBJECTIVE

The authors investigated the effects of implementing psychiatric interventions on a general medical ward by means of a stepped detection and treatment strategy conducted by a consultation-liaison (CL) nurse in terms of reducing length of hospital stay (LOS) and improving quality of life (QOL) at discharge.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One hundred ninety-three patients participated in a controlled trial, in which patients were screened with COMPRI and INTERMED. A nurse under supervision of a CL psychiatrist conducted interventions, consisting of simple psychiatric interventions by herself, referral to auxiliary services, or initiation of postdischarge care. Intervention patients were compared with historic controls on LOS and QOL (SF36) at discharge.

RESULTS

In multivariate analysis of variance, a significant effect of the intervention on QOL (p = 0.037) was found, which diminished after controlling for confounders (p = 0.28). No significant effect on LOS was found for the whole sample (p = 0.72), but in patients age 65 years or older, a reduction in LOS (p = 0.05) was found. This effect remained after controlling for confounders (p = 0.06).

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that screening for risk of increased health care might improve outcomes in general medical inpatients. Because of the design of the study, however, these findings should be considered preliminary and confirmed in a larger, multicenter, randomized controlled trial.

Sleep quality predicts positive and negative affect but not vice versa. An electronic diary study in depressed and healthy individuals

BACKGROUND

The exact nature of the complex relationship between sleep and affect has remained unclear. This study investigated the temporal order of change in sleep and affect in participants with and without depression.

METHODS

27 depressed patients and 27 pair-matched healthy controls assessed their sleep in the morning and their affect 3 times a day for 30 consecutive days in their natural environment. Daily sleep quality and average positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) were used to examine whether changes in sleep quality preceded or followed changes in PA and NA, and whether this was different for patients and healthy controls. Second, presumptive mediating factors were investigated. We hypothesized that fatigue mediated the effect of changes in sleep quality on subsequent PA/NA, and that rumination mediated the effect of changes in PA/NA on subsequent sleep quality.

RESULTS

Multilevel models showed that changes in sleep quality predicted changes in PA (B=0.08, p<0.001) and NA (B=-0.06, p<0.001), but not the other way around (PA: B=0.03, p=0.70, NA: B=-0.05, p=0.60). Fatigue was found to be a significant mediator of the relationship between sleep quality and PA (Indirect Effect=0.03, p<0.001), and between sleep quality and NA (Indirect Effect=-0.02, p=0.01). Rumination was not investigated because of non-significant associations between PA/NA and sleep quality. The associations were not different for patients and controls.

LIMITATIONS

The analyses were restricted to self-reported sleep quality, and conclusions about causality could not be drawn.

CONCLUSIONS

Improvements in sleep quality predicted improvements in affect the following day, partly mediated by fatigue. Treatment of sleep symptoms would benefit affect in clinical care and beyond.

Somatic/affective symptoms, but not cognitive/affective symptoms, of depression after acute coronary syndrome are associated with 12-month all-cause mortality

BACKGROUND

Symptom dimensions of post myocardial infarction (MI) depression may be differently related to prognosis. Somatic/affective symptoms appear to be associated with a worse cardiac outcome than cognitive/affective symptoms. We examined the relationship between depressive symptom dimensions following acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and both disease severity and all-cause mortality.

METHODS

Patients (n=913) who had unstable angina pectoris or MI were recruited from 12 coronary care units between 1997 and 1999. Measurements included sociodemographic and clinical data and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Endpoint was all-cause mortality at 12-month follow-up.

RESULTS

Principal component analysis revealed two components, somatic/affective and cognitive/affective symptoms of depression. Somatic/affective symptoms of depression (odds ratio (OR): 1.49; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23-1.81; p<0.001) but not cognitive/affective symptoms (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.75-1.12; p=0.40) were related to a higher Killip class. Fifty-one patients died during the follow-up period. When controlling for index event, history of MI, Killip class, diabetes, gender and age, there was a significant association between the somatic/affective component (OR: 1.92; 95% CI: 1.36-2.71; p<0.001) and mortality. The cognitive/affective component was not related to mortality (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.75-1.52; p=0.73).

LIMITATIONS

Time to death was not available.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that only somatic/affective depressive symptoms were associated with disease severity and all-cause mortality in ACS patients. More research is needed to evaluate the differential associations of somatic/affective and cognitive/affective depressive symptoms with cardiac outcomes and the underlying mechanisms.

A web-based tool to support shared decision making for people with a psychotic disorder: randomized controlled trial and process evaluation

Background

Mental health policy makers encourage the development of electronic decision aids to increase patient participation in medical decision making. Evidence is needed to determine whether these decision aids are helpful in clinical practice and whether they lead to increased patient involvement and better outcomes.

Objective

This study reports the outcome of a randomized controlled trial and process evaluation of a Web-based intervention to facilitate shared decision making for people with psychotic disorders.

Methods

The study was carried out in a Dutch mental health institution. Patients were recruited from 2 outpatient teams for patients with psychosis (N=250). Patients in the intervention condition (n=124) were provided an account to access a Web-based information and decision tool aimed to support patients in acquiring an overview of their needs and appropriate treatment options provided by their mental health care organization. Patients were given the opportunity to use the Web-based tool either on their own (at their home computer or at a computer of the service) or with the support of an assistant. Patients in the control group received care as usual (n=126). Half of the patients in the sample were patients experiencing a first episode of psychosis; the other half were patients with a chronic psychosis. Primary outcome was patient-perceived involvement in medical decision making, measured with the Combined Outcome Measure for Risk Communication and Treatment Decision-making Effectiveness (COMRADE). Process evaluation consisted of questionnaire-based surveys, open interviews, and researcher observation.

Results

In all, 73 patients completed the follow-up measurement and were included in the final analysis (response rate 29.2%). More than one-third (48/124, 38.7%) of the patients who were provided access to the Web-based decision aid used it, and most used its full functionality. No differences were found between the intervention and control conditions on perceived involvement in medical decision making (COMRADE satisfaction with communication: F_1,68=0.422, P=.52; COMRADE confidence in decision: F_1,67=0.086, P=.77). In addition, results of the process evaluation suggest that the intervention did not optimally fit in with routine practice of the participating teams.

Conclusions

The development of electronic decision aids to facilitate shared medical decision making is encouraged and many people with a psychotic disorder can work with them. This holds for both first-episode patients and long-term care patients, although the latter group might need more assistance. However, results of this paper could not support the assumption that the use of electronic decision aids increases patient involvement in medical decision making. This may be because of weak implementation of the study protocol and a low response rate.

Trial Registration

Dutch Trial Register (NTR) trial number: 10340; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctsearch.asp?Term=10340 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6Jj5umAeS).

Time to get personal? The impact of researchers choices on the selection of treatment targets using the experience sampling methodology

OBJECTIVE

One of the promises of the experience sampling methodology (ESM) is that a statistical analysis of an individual's emotions, cognitions and behaviors in everyday-life could be used to identify relevant treatment targets. A requisite for clinical implementation is that outcomes of such person-specific time-series analyses are not wholly contingent on the researcher performing them.

METHODS

To evaluate this, we crowdsourced the analysis of one individual patient's ESM data to 12 prominent research teams, asking them what symptom(s) they would advise the treating clinician to target in subsequent treatment.

RESULTS

Variation was evident at different stages of the analysis, from preprocessing steps (e.g., variable selection, clustering, handling of missing data) to the type of statistics and rationale for selecting targets. Most teams did include a type of vector autoregressive model, examining relations between symptoms over time. Although most teams were confident their selected targets would provide useful information to the clinician, not one recommendation was similar: both the number (0-16) and nature of selected targets varied widely.

CONCLUSION

This study makes transparent that the selection of treatment targets based on personalized models using ESM data is currently highly conditional on subjective analytical choices and highlights key conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed in moving towards clinical implementation.

Recurrent depression and the role of adult attachment: a prospective and a retrospective study

BACKGROUND

Recurrent depression is associated with interpersonal dysfunctioning which is related to underlying insecure attachment. In this study we examined associations between adult attachment and the long-term course of depression in depressed primary care patients.

METHODS

Depressed primary care patients were 3-monthly assessed during a prospective 3-year follow-up regarding: (1) severity of depression (BDI); and proportions of: (2) depression-free time; (3) depressive symptom-free time; and (4) time on antidepressants (all CIDI interview). Attachment style was assessed by the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire at two points in time: (1) one year before the end of follow-up (1-year prospectively followed subsample; n=68); and (2) at the end of the 3-year follow-up (3-year retrospective subsample; n=145). Mixed model analyses and non-parametric tests were used to determine whether different attachment styles were associated with different courses of depression.

RESULTS

Fearfully attached patients in the prospective sample reported a statistically significant worse depression course compared with securely attached patients (adjusted mean BDI 12.7 v. 6.8 respectively; F=3.22; p=0.029), which was confirmed in the retrospective sample (adjusted mean BDI 15.7 v. 8.8; F=7.86; p<0.001). They reported significantly more prior depressive episodes and residual symptoms, longer use of antidepressants, and worse social functioning as well.

LIMITATIONS

Size of the prospective sample was restricted.

CONCLUSION

Fearfully attached subjects constitute a particularly vulnerable category of depressed patients. Information on their attachment style may provide GPs with indications regarding intensity, goals and approach of treatment.

Associations of type-D personality and depression with somatic health in myocardial infarction patients

OBJECTIVE

Depression and type-D personality have both been associated with worse cardiac prognosis in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. There is some debate, however, that the association between depression and cardiac prognosis is confounded by somatic health. We therefore compared to what extent depression and type-D personality are associated with somatic health.

METHOD

We studied the association of depressive disorder and type-D with baseline somatic health in a subsample of 1205 post-MI patients from the Myocardial Infarction and Depression Intervention Trial study. Depressive disorder was assessed according to ICD-10 criteria with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview during the post-MI year and type-D with the DS14 at 1-year follow-up. Somatic health was operationalized by baseline LVEF, Charlson Comorbidity Index, previous MI, and CABG or PTCA during hospital admission.

RESULTS

Prevalence rates were 17.1% for post-MI depression and 18.7% for type-D. After controlling for potential confounders, post-MI depression was associated with poorer baseline LVEF [odds ratio (OR)=3.17, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.28-4.41] and greater comorbidity (OR=1.46, 95% CI=1.02-2.09), whereas type-D personality was not (LVEF: OR=1.31, 95% CI=0.93-1.87; comorbidity: OR=0.92, 95% CI=0.63-1.35).

CONCLUSION

Post-MI depression during the post-MI year is more related to somatic health than type-D personality at 12 months post-MI and, specifically, somatic symptoms of depression. Confounding of cardiovascular effects of psychological distress by poor somatic health status is thus more likely to occur in post-MI depression than in type-D personality.

The role of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val66met variant in the phenotypic expression of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Evidence suggests that the Val66Met variant of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene may play a role in the etiology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In this study, the role of the BDNF Val66Met variant in the etiology and the phenotypic expression of OCD is investigated. Associations between the BDNF Val66Met variant and OCD, obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) severity scores, age of onset and family history of obsessive-compulsive symptoms were assessed. The BDNF Val66Met variant was genotyped in 419 patients with sub-/clinical OCD and 650 controls. No differences in allele or genotype frequency were observed between cases and controls. In females with OCD, the Met66Met genotype was associated with later age of onset and a trend for a negative family history, whereas the Val66Val genotype was associated with a trend for lower YBOCS severity scores. Item-level factor analysis revealed six factors: 1) Contamination/cleaning; 2) Aggressive obsessions/checking; 3) Symmetry obsessions, counting, ordering and repeating; 4) Sexual/religious obsessions; 5) Hoarding and 6) Somatic obsessions/checking. A trend was found for a positive association between Factor 4 (Sexual/religious obsessions) and the BDNF Val66Val genotype. The results suggest that BDNF function may be implicated in the mediation of OCD. We found that for the BDNF Met66Met genotype may be associated with a milder phenotype in females and a possible role for the BDNF Val66Val genotype and the BDNF Val66 allele in the sexual/religious obsessions.

Association of Depressive and Anxiety Disorders With Diagnosed Versus Undiagnosed Diabetes: An Epidemiological Study of 90,686 Participants

OBJECTIVE

To compare the odds of depressive and anxiety disorders for participants with diagnosed diabetes, participants with diabetes but unaware of this, and participants without diabetes. Such knowledge might improve etiological insight into psychopathology in diabetes.

METHODS

Data of 90,686 participants (mean age = 45 years; 59% female) from the LifeLines cohort was used. Depressive and anxiety disorders were assessed by the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The odds of depression and anxiety were assessed for three groups: a) diagnosed diabetes, diabetes medication use and/or self-reported "diabetes"; b) undiagnosed diabetes, fasting blood glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l, but no diabetes medication use and self-reported "no diabetes"; and c) no diabetes, fasting blood glucose <7.0 mmol/l and self-reported "no diabetes." Logistic regression was performed to compare the odds of depression and anxiety in these groups, adjusting for age, sex, diabetes-related diseases, comorbid depressive or anxiety disorders, and glycosylated hemoglobin.

RESULTS

A total of 3002 (3.3%) participants were diagnosed as having depression and 9018 (9.9%) as having anxiety; 1781 (2.0%) had diagnosed and 786 (0.9%) had undiagnosed diabetes. Both diagnosed (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4:1.1-1.8, p = .006) and undiagnosed (OR = 1.8:1.3-2.6, p = .001) diabetes were independently associated with depression. The odds of depression did not differ between diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes (OR = 0.7, p = .17). Diagnosed diabetes was independently associated with anxiety (OR = 1.4:1.2-1.7, p < .001), but undiagnosed diabetes was not (OR = 0.8:0.6-1.1, p = .20). The odds of anxiety were significantly higher in diagnosed compared with undiagnosed diabetes (1.68:1.23-2.31, p = .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Depression was more prevalent in participants with diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes, whereas anxiety was more prevalent only in participants who were aware of their diabetes. Longitudinal research is needed to assess the causal pathways of these associations.