Treating panic disorder in primary care: a collaborative care intervention.

Efficacy research indicates the success of cognitive behavioral treatment and medication treatment for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. However, research findings to date possess limited generalizability beyond specialty mental health settings. We present a model for collaborative care treatment for panic disorder in the primary care setting that combines cognitive behavioral therapy and medications, and involves a behavioral health specialist, psychiatrist, and primary care physician.

Can utility-weighted health-related quality-of-life estimates capture health effects of quality improvement for depression?

Background: Utility methods that are responsive to changes in desirable outcomes are needed for cost-effectiveness (CE) analyses and to help in decisions about resource allocation.

Objectives: Evaluated is the responsiveness of different methods that assign utility weights to subsets of SF-36 items to average improvements in health resulting from quality improvement (QI) interventions for depression.

Design: A group level, randomized, control trial in 46 primary care clinics in six managed care organizations.

Reducing missed opportunities to vaccinate during child health visits. How effective are parent education and case management?

Background: At child health visits, immunizations that are due are frequently not given. Increased parent understanding of and demand for immunizations may influence providers to not miss these opportunities.

Objective: To assess, as part of a larger study of effectiveness of parent education and case management (CM) in raising immunization rates, the intervention's effectiveness at reducing missed opportunities to vaccinate during child health visits.

Increasing immunization rates among inner-city, African American children. A randomized trial of case management.

Context: Immunization rates in the inner city remain lower than in the general US population, but efforts to raise immunization levels in inner-city areas have been largely untested.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of case management in raising immunization levels among infants of inner-city, African American families.

Design: Randomized controlled trial with follow-up through 1 year of life.

Factors related to immunization status among inner-city Latino and African-American preschoolers.

Objective: To identify factors associated with undervaccination at 3 months and 24 months among low-income, inner-city Latino and African-American preschool children.

Design: Interviews with a representative sample of inner-city families using a cross-sectional, multi-stage, cluster-sample design combined with a replicated quota sampling approach.

Setting: South Central and East Los Angeles areas in inner-city Los Angeles.