Participants' Engagement With and Results From a Web-Based Integrative Population Mental Wellness Program (CHAMindWell) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Program Evaluation Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic involved a prolonged period of collective trauma and stress during which substantial increases in mental health concerns, like depression and anxiety, were observed across the population. In this context, CHAMindWell was developed as a web-based intervention to improve resilience and reduce symptom severity among a public health care system's patient population. OBJECTIVE: This program evaluation was conducted to explore participants' engagement with and outcomes from CHAMindWell by retrospectively examining demographic information and mental health symptom severity scores throughout program participation. METHODS: We examined participants' symptom severity scores from repeated, web-based symptom screenings through Computerized Adaptive Testing for Mental Health (CAT-MH) surveys, and categorized participants into symptom severity-based tiers (tier 1=asymptomatic to mild; tier 2=moderate; and tier 3=severe). Participants were provided tier-based mindfulness resources, treatment recommendations, and referrals. Logistic regressions were conducted to evaluate associations between demographic variables and survey completion. The McNemar exact test and paired sample t tests were performed to evaluate changes in the numbers of participants in tier 1 versus tier 2 or 3 and changes in depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder severity scores between baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: The program enrolled 903 participants (664/903, 73.5% female; 556/903, 61.6% White; 113/903, 12.5% Black; 84/903, 9.3% Asian; 7/903, 0.8% Native; 36/903, 4% other; and 227/903, 25.1% Hispanic) between December 16, 2020, and March 17, 2022. Of those, 623 (69%) completed a baseline CAT-MH survey, and 196 completed at least one follow-up survey 3 to 6 months after baseline. White racial identity was associated with completing baseline CAT-MH (odds ratio [OR] 1.80, 95% CI 1.14-2.84; P=.01). Participants' odds of having symptom severity below the clinical threshold (ie, tier 1) were significantly greater at follow-up (OR 2.60, 95% CI 1.40-5.08; P=.001), and significant reductions were observed across symptom domains over time. CONCLUSIONS: CHAMindWell is associated with reduced severity of mental health symptoms. Future work should aim to address program engagement inequities and attrition and compare the impacts of CHAMindWell to a control condition to better characterize its effects.

Toward Population Health: Using a Learning Behavioral Health System and Measurement-Based Care to Improve Access, Care, Outcomes, and Disparities.

Achieving population behavioral health is urgently needed. The mental health system struggles with enormous challenges of providing access to mental health services, improving quality and equitability of care, and ensuring good health outcomes across subpopulations. Little data exists about increasing access within highly constrained resources, staging/sequencing treatment along care pathways, or personalizing treatments. The conceptual model of the learning healthcare system offers a potential paradigm shift for addressing these challenges. In this article we present an overview of how the three constructs of population health, learning health systems, and measurement-based care are inter-related, and we provide an example of how one academic, community-based, safety net health system is approaching integrating these paradigms into its service delivery system. Implementation outcomes will be described in a subsequent publication. We close by discussing how ultimately, to meaningfully improve population behavioral health, a learning healthcare system could expand into a learning health community in order to target critical points of prevention and intervention.

Remote Care Management for Older Adult Populations With Elevated Prevalence of Depression or Anxiety and Comorbid Chronic Medical Illness: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Comorbidity of psychiatric and medical illnesses among older adult populations is highly prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes. Care management is a common form of outpatient support for both psychiatric and medical conditions in which assessment, care planning, and care coordination are provided. Although care management is often remote and delivered by telephone, the evidence supporting this model of care is uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To perform a systematic review of the literature on remote care management programs for older adult populations with elevated prevalence of depression or anxiety and comorbid chronic medical illness. METHODS: A systematic review was performed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A multidatabase search was performed. Articles were included for review if they studied fully remote care management for older adult populations with elevated prevalence of depression or anxiety and chronic medical illness or poor physical health. A narrative synthesis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 6 articles representing 6 unique studies met inclusion criteria. The 6 studies included 4 randomized controlled trials, 1 case-matched retrospective cohort study, and 1 pre-post analysis. Two studies focused on specific medical conditions. All interventions were entirely telephonic. Five of 6 studies involved an intervention that was 3 to 6 months in duration. Across the 6 studies, care management demonstrated mixed results in terms of impact on psychiatric outcomes and limited impact on medical outcomes. No studies demonstrated a statistically significant impact on health care utilization or cost. CONCLUSIONS: Among older adult populations with elevated prevalence of depression or anxiety and comorbid chronic medical illness, remote care management may have favorable impact on psychiatric symptoms, but impact on physical health and health care utilization is uncertain. Future research should focus on identifying effective models and elements of remote care management for this population, with a particular focus on optimizing medical outcomes.

Promoting Population Behavioral Health in a Safety-Net Health System During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been expected to lead to substantial increases in need for behavioral health care. A population health framework can facilitate the development of interventions and policies to promote the equitable distribution of care across the population. This column describes the application of population behavioral health principles in a safety-net health system during the pandemic. The approach includes stepped models of care, interventions to target individuals at high behavioral health risk, and measurement-based care. Early data suggest that these strategies have resulted in expanded behavioral health care capacity.

Identification of hospitalizations for intentional self-harm when E-codes are incompletely recorded.

CONTEXT: Suicidal behavior has gained attention as an adverse outcome of prescription drug use. Hospitalizations for intentional self-harm, including suicide, can be identified in administrative claims databases using external cause of injury codes (E-codes). However, rates of E-code completeness in US government and commercial claims databases are low due to issues with hospital billing software. OBJECTIVE: To develop an algorithm to identify intentional self-harm hospitalizations using recorded injury and psychiatric diagnosis codes in the absence of E-code reporting. METHODS: We sampled hospitalizations with an injury diagnosis (ICD-9 800-995) from two databases with high rates of E-coding completeness: 1999-2001 British Columbia, Canada data and the 2004 US Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Our gold standard for intentional self-harm was a diagnosis of E950-E958. We constructed algorithms to identify these hospitalizations using information on type of injury and presence of specific psychiatric diagnoses. RESULTS: The algorithm that identified intentional self-harm hospitalizations with high sensitivity and specificity was a diagnosis of poisoning, toxic effects, open wound to elbow, wrist, or forearm, or asphyxiation; plus a diagnosis of depression, mania, personality disorder, psychotic disorder, or adjustment reaction. This had a sensitivity of 63%, specificity of 99% and positive predictive value (PPV) of 86% in the Canadian database. Values in the US data were 74, 98, and 73%. PPV was highest (80%) in patients under 25 and lowest those over 65 (44%). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed algorithm may be useful for researchers attempting to study intentional self-harm in claims databases with incomplete E-code reporting, especially among younger populations.

Impact of drug cost sharing on service use and adverse clinical outcomes in elderly receiving antidepressants.

BACKGROUND: Depression imposes enormous burdens on the elderly. Despite this, rates of initiation of and adherence to recommended pharmacotherapy are frequently low in this population. Although initiatives such as the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) have improved seniors' access to antidepressants, there are concerns that the patient cost-sharing incorporated in the MMA may have unintended consequences if it reduces essential drug use. Age-related pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes could make seniors particularly vulnerable to antidepressant regimens used inappropriately to save costs, increasing their risks of morbidity, hospitalizations, and nursing home placements. Two sequential large-scale "natural experiments'' in British Columbia provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of cost sharing on outcomes and mental health service use among seniors. In January 2002 the province introduced a CAD 25 copay (CAD10 for low-income seniors). In May 2003 this copay policy was replaced by a second policy consisting of an income-based deductible, 25% coinsurance once the deductible was met, and full coverage once an out-of-pocket ceiling was met. The transition between the two policies is analogous to what many U.S. seniors experience when they transition from private insurance requiring copays to Medicare Part D requiring deductibles and coinsurance. AIMS: To evaluate whether declines in antidepressant initiation after the introduction of two drug cost-sharing policies in British Columbia were associated with increased use of physician services, hospitalizations, and nursing home admissions among all British Columbia residents aged 65+. METHODS: Records of physician service use, inpatient hospitalizations, and residential care admissions were obtained from administrative databases. Population-level patterns over time were plotted, and effects of implementing the cost-sharing policies examined in segmented linear regression models. RESULTS: Neither policy affected the rates of visits to physicians or psychiatrists for depression, hospitalizations with a depression diagnosis, or long-term care admissions. DISCUSSION: The cost-sharing policies studied may have contained non-essential antidepressant use without substantially increasing mental health service utilization. However, it is possible that the policies had effects that we were unable to detect, such as increasing rates of visits to social workers or psychologists or forcing patients to reduce other spending. Further, the sequential implementation of the policy changes, makes it difficult to estimate the effect of a direct change from full coverage to a coinsurance/income-based deductible policy. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: It may be possible to design policies to contain non-essential antidepressant use without substantially increasing other service utilization or adverse events. However, because undertreatment remains a serious problem among depressed elderly, well-designed prescription drug policies should be coupled with interventions to address under-treatment.

Variation in the risk of suicide attempts and completed suicides by antidepressant agent in adults: a propensity score-adjusted analysis of 9 years' data.

CONTEXT: A US Food and Drug Administration advisory has warned that antidepressants may be associated with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescents. This prompted a meta-analysis of trials in adults that found no overall increase in risk, but individual agents could not be studied. OBJECTIVE: To assess the risk of suicide and suicide attempts associated with individual antidepressant agents. DESIGN: Cohort study of incident users of antidepressant agents. SETTING: Population-based health care utilization data of all residents of British Columbia, Canada, aged 18 years and older between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2005. PATIENTS: British Columbia residents who had antidepressant therapy initiated and had a recorded diagnosis of depression. INTERVENTION: Initiation of various antidepressant medications. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Combined suicide death or hospitalization due to self-harm. RESULTS: In a population of 287,543 adults aged 18 years and older with antidepressant therapy initiated, we observed outcome rates ranging from 4.41/1000 person-years to 9.09/1000 person-years. Most events occurred in the first 6 months after treatment initiation. After extensive propensity score adjustment, we found no clinically meaningful variation in the risk of suicide and suicide attempt between antidepressant agents compared with fluoxetine hydrochloride initiation: citalopram hydrobromide, hazard ratio = 1.00 (95% confidence interval, 0.63-1.57); fluvoxamine maleate, hazard ratio = 0.98 (95% confidence interval, 0.63-1.51); paroxetine hydrochloride, hazard ratio = 1.02 (95% confidence interval, 0.77-1.35); and sertraline hydrochloride, hazard ratio = 0.75 (95% confidence interval, 0.53-1.05). Compared with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as a drug class, other classes including serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic agents, and other newer and atypical agents had a similar risk. Restriction to patients with no antidepressant use in the past 3 years further reduced apparent differences between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding of equal event rates across antidepressant agents supports the US Food and Drug Administration's decision to treat all antidepressants alike in their advisory. Treatment decisions should be based on efficacy, and clinicians should be vigilant in monitoring after initiating therapy with any antidepressant agent.

Comparative safety of antidepressant agents for children and adolescents regarding suicidal acts.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the risk of suicide attempts and suicides after initiation of antidepressant medication use by children and adolescents, for individual agents. METHODS: We conducted a 9-year cohort study by using population-wide data from British Columbia. We identified new users of antidepressants who were 10 to 18 years of age with a recorded diagnosis of depression. Study outcomes were hospitalization attributable to intentional self-harm and suicide death. RESULTS: Of 20,906 children who initiated antidepressant therapy, 16,774 (80%) had no previous antidepressant use. During the first year of use, we observed 266 attempted and 3 completed suicides, which yielded an event rate of 27.04 suicidal acts per 1000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 23.9-30.5 suicidal acts per 1000 person-years). There were no meaningful differences in the rate ratios (RRs) comparing fluoxetine with citalopram (RR: 0.97 [95% CI: 0.54-1.76]), fluvoxamine (RR: 1.05 [95% CI: 0.46-2.43]), paroxetine (RR: 0.80 [95% CI: 0.47-1.37]), and sertraline (RR: 1.02 [95% CI: 0.56-1.84]). Tricyclic agents showed risks similar to those of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (RR: 0.92 [95% CI: 0.43-2.00]). CONCLUSION: Our finding of equal event rates among antidepressant agents supports the decision of the Food and Drug Administration to include all antidepressants in the black box warning regarding potentially increased suicidality risk for children and adolescents beginning use of antidepressants.

Service use among Mexico City adolescents with suicidality.

BACKGROUND: We report the lifetime and 12-month prevalence and associations of mental health treatment among Mexican adolescents with suicide-related outcomes (SROs; including ideation, plans, gestures and attempts). METHODS: A representative multistage probability household survey of 3005 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years residing in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area was carried out in 2005. Discrete-time survival analyses were used to assess the relationships between SROs and receiving treatment for emotional, alcohol, or drug problems. RESULTS: The prevalence of lifetime service use among respondents with SROs was 35% for those with ideation only, 44% for those with ideation and plan, 49% for those with gesture and 50% for those with attempt; the prevalence of 12-month service use was 10%, 24%, 6% and 21%, respectively. Timing between onset of SRO and receiving treatment for emotional, alcohol, or drug problems showed that about 50% of adolescents will have contact with a service provider before developing any SRO. Healthcare professionals were the most likely to be consulted, followed by school-based programs. LIMITATIONS: This survey was limited to adolescents living in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and the analyses used data on retrospectively reported ages of onset that are subject to recall errors. CONCLUSIONS: Most suicidal adolescents do not receive treatment, and many adolescents develop their suicidality in spite of prior contacts with service providers. Interventions to increase treatment, prevention, and monitoring are sorely needed for this vulnerable population.

The STAR*D trial: revealing the need for better treatments.

STAR*D (Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression) continues to stimulate debate. The landmark trial demonstrated the feasibility of large-scale, community-based studies conducted without pharmaceutical company support. The results provided insight into nonresponse to initial treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and alternatives for second- and third-line treatment options and suggested opportunities for personalized approaches to depression care. However, initial and one-year remission rates (28% and 70%, respectively) suggest that important goals for treatment of this disabling disease remain out of reach and that the bar for antidepressants has been set far too low.

Health advisories and patterns of patient monitoring among new users of antidepressant medications.

INTRODUCTION: In 2003, more intense monitoring of patients initiating antidepressants was advised because of emerging concerns of suicidality. We sought to identify patterns of patient monitoring after antidepressant initiation in British Columbia before and after issuance of health advisories. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of antidepressant initiators between 1999 and 2005 using healthcare utilization data of all British Columbia residents. For the periods before (1999-2001) and after (2004-2005), health advisories concerning suicidality associated with antidepressants, we assessed monitoring intensity by calculating weekly physician and psychotherapy visit rates since antidepressant initiation. We also estimated monitoring patterns as the proportion of individuals who received weekly in-person contact during the first 4 weeks of treatment, then biweekly visits for 4 weeks, and then a visit at 12 weeks, as a proxy for intensive monitoring. RESULTS: Patterns of monitoring intensity were similar before and after the health advisories, but the level of intensity was lower after the advisory period. Overall, monitoring intensity peaked in the 4 weeks after antidepressant initiation. Weekly numbers of visits per subject during these 4 weeks were between 0.44 and 0.49 before the advisory and from 0.39 to 0.44 after the advisory. Among all initiators stratified by year of initiation, between 21% and 25% received intensive monitoring, and this proportion generally decreased on a yearly basis. DISCUSSION: Monitoring intensity for patients with depression initiating antidepressants decreased after the period of emergence and greater awareness of the association between antidepressants and suicidality.

Low socioeconomic status and mental health care use among respondents with anxiety and depression in the NCS-R.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine whether previously reported poor outcomes among patients of low socioeconomic status who have depression and anxiety could result from not receiving mental health treatment or from receiving minimally adequate treatment. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 1,772 participants in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) who met criteria for a mood or anxiety disorder. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between education, income, and assets and receipt of treatment and quality of treatment (minimally adequate treatment) for mood and anxiety disorders in sectors with the capacity to deliver evidence-based treatments (the general medical and mental health specialty sectors). Multivariate analyses controlled for age, gender, race-ethnicity, marital status, health insurance, and urbanicity. RESULTS: Age, gender, marital status, and race-ethnicity were strong and fairly consistent predictors of mental health services use, with some modest variations by sector. In contrast, in bivariate and multivariate analyses, education, income, and assets were minimally related to use of mental health care and to receipt of minimally adequate care in both general medical and mental health specialty sectors. CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic status does not appear to play a major role in determining aspects of treatment for depression and anxiety disorders. Poor outcomes of depressed and anxious patients with low socioeconomic status may be due to differences in quality of care beyond the minimally adequate level assessed in this study or to factors unrelated to quality of care that could counteract effective treatments, such as the presence of ongoing chronic stress.

Dropout from outpatient mental health care in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: Although mental health treatment dropout is common, patterns and predictors of dropout are poorly understood. This study explored patterns and predictors of mental health treatment dropout in a nationally representative sample. METHODS: Data were from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative household survey. Respondents who had received mental health treatment in the 12 months before the interview (N=1,664) were asked about dropout, which was defined as quitting treatment before the provider wanted them to stop. Cross-tabulation and discrete-time survival analyses were used to identify predictors. RESULTS: Approximately one-fifth (22%) of patients quit treatment prematurely. The highest dropout rate was from treatment received in the general medical sector (32%), and the lowest was from treatment received by psychiatrists (15%). Dropout rates were intermediate from treatment in the human services sector (20%) and among patients seen by nonpsychiatrist mental health professionals (19%). Over 70% of all dropout occurred after the first or second visits. Mental health insurance was associated with low odds of dropout (odds ratio=.6, 95% confidence interval=.4-.9). Psychiatric comorbidity was associated with a trend toward dropout. Several patient characteristics differentially predicted dropout across treatment sectors and in early and later phases of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Roughly one-fifth of adults in mental health treatment dropped out before completing the recommended course of treatment. Dropout was most common in the general medical sector and varied by patient characteristics across treatment sectors. Interventions focused on high-risk patients and sectors that have higher dropout rates will likely be required to reduce the large proportion of patients who prematurely terminate treatment.

Invited Commentary: Assessing treatment effects by using observational analyses--opportunities and limitations.

Making decisions about medical treatments based upon valid evidence is critical to improve health-care quality, outcomes, and value. Although such research commonly connotes the use of randomized controlled trials, experimental methods are not always feasible, and research using observational, quasi-experimental, and other nonexperimental methods may also be important. At the same time, nonexperimental methods are inherently susceptible to various types of bias and thus present special challenges in the search for valid and generalizable evidence. The study by Gardarsdottir et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2009;170(3):280-285), on which this commentary is based, addresses a key potential source of bias -- mismeasurement of patients' duration of treatment -- in previous research on pharmacotherapy for depression. However, the authors' study is unlikely to address other potential sources of bias, which may make interpretation of their findings more difficult.

When is pharmacogenetic testing for antidepressant response ready for the clinic? A cost-effectiveness analysis based on data from the STAR*D study.

The potential of personalized medicine to transform the treatment of mood disorders has been widely touted in psychiatry, but has not been quantified. We estimated the costs and benefits of a putative pharmacogenetic test for antidepressant response in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) from the societal perspective. Specifically, we performed cost-effectiveness analyses using state-transition probability models incorporating probabilities from the multicenter STAR*D effectiveness study of MDD. Costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were compared for sequential antidepressant trials, with or without guidance from a pharmacogenetic test for differential response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Likely SSRI responders received an SSRI, whereas likely nonresponders received the norepinephrine/dopamine reuptake inhibitor bupropion. For a 40-year old with MDD, applying the pharmacogenetic test and using the non-SSRI bupropion for those at higher risk for nonresponse cost $93,520 per additional QALY compared with treating all patients with an SSRI first and switching sequentially in the case of nonremission. Cost per QALY dropped below $50,000 for tests with remission rate ratios as low as 1.5, corresponding to odds ratios approximately 1.8-2.0. Tests for differential antidepressant response could thus become cost effective under certain circumstances. These circumstances, particularly availability of alternative treatment strategies and test effect sizes, can be estimated and should be considered before these tests are broadly applied in clinical settings.