Depression-related treatment and costs in Germany: Do they change with comorbidity? A claims data analysis.

Background: Existing diverse bottom-up estimations of direct costs associated with depression in Germany motivated a detailed patient-level analysis of depression-related treatment (DRT), -costs (DRC) and Comorbidity.

Methods: A large sickness fund's claims data was used to retrospectively identify patients aged 18-65 years with new-onset depression treatment between January 1st and February 15th 2010, and follow them until December 31st 2010, describe DRT, estimate associated DRC, and predict DRC with a generalised linear model.

Results: A total of 18,139 patients were analysed.

Major depression treatment in Germany-descriptive analysis of health insurance fund routine data and assessment of guideline-adherence.

Background: Guideline oriented treatment strategies of Major depressive disorder (MDD) improve treatment outcomes and reduce risks of chronicity and recurrence.

Aims: Description of routine treatment reality and analysis of guideline fidelity in first episode MDD in Germany. Indicators: patients with severe or psychotic depression or severe psychiatric comorbidities' treatment by specialists, adequate antidepressant pharmacotherapy, permanent treatment with more than one antidepressant, long-term benzodiazepine treatment and provision of psychotherapy.