Description of a clinical pharmacist intervention administered to primary care patients with depression.

The objective of this article is to provide a detailed description of interactions between patients with depression and pharmacists. Analysis was conducted on patients from the intervention arm (n=268) of an randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of a clinical pharmacist on the outcomes for depressed primary care patients from nine metropolitan Boston practices. The main outcome measure was the amount of intervention time spent with patients, physicians, and other activities.

The impact of a pharmacist intervention on 6-month outcomes in depressed primary care patients.

The object of the study was to evaluate outcomes of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of a pharmacist intervention for depressed patients in primary care (PC). We report antidepressant (AD) use and depression severity outcomes at 6-months. The RCT was conducted between 1998 and 2000 in 9 eastern Massachusetts PC practices.

Assessing the performance of a new depression screener for primary care (PC-SAD).

As many as 50% of patients with major depression seen in primary care settings are not diagnosed. To facilitate efficient identification of primary care patients with depression, we developed a new patient-administered depression screening instrument (PC-SAD) that produces a DSM-IV diagnosis, and compared its performance to other screeners that yield DSM-IV diagnoses. To assess validity, the diagnostic accuracy of the PC-SAD was compared with the Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD) and the PRIME-MD-PHQ (PHQ) in a convenience sample (N = 312) of health plan members, primary care outpatients, and psychiatric patients (with diagnoses).