Depression remission decreases outpatient utilization at 6 and 12 months after enrollment into collaborative care management.

Collaborative care management (CCM) for depression has been demonstrated to improve clinical outcomes. The impetus for this study was to determine if outpatient utilization patterns would be associated with depression outcomes. The hypothesis was that depression remission would be independently correlated with outpatient utilization at 6 and 12 months after enrollment into CCM.

Effects of concurrent low back conditions on depression outcomes.

Context: Depression and low back problems are common issues in primary care.

Objective: To compare 6-month depression outcomes (specifically, clinical results and number of outpatient visits) in patients with or without comorbid low back conditions (LBCs). The authors hypothesized that the presence of an LBC within 3 months of the diagnosis of depression would negatively affect clinical outcomes of depression treatment after 6 months.