Pharmacological and psychosocial treatment of depression in primary care: Low intensity and poor adherence and continuity.

Background: Primary health care bears the main responsibility for treating depression in most countries. However, few studies have comprehensively investigated provision of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments, their continuity, or patient attitudes and adherence to treatment in primary care.

Methods: In the Vantaa Primary Care Depression Study, 1111 consecutive primary care patients in the City of Vantaa, Finland, were screened for depression with Prime-MD, and 137 were diagnosed with DSM-IV depressive disorders via SCID-I/P and SCID-II interviews. The 100 patients with current major depressive disorder (MDD) or partly remitted MDD at baseline were prospectively followed up to 18 months, and their treatment contacts and the treatments provided were longitudinally followed.

Results: The median number of patients' visits to a general practitioner during the follow-up was five; of those due to depression two. Antidepressant treatment was offered to 82% of patients, but only 50% commenced treatment and adhered to it adequately. Psychosocial support was offered to 49%, but only 29% adhered to the highly variable interventions. Attributed reasons for poor adherence varied, including negative attitude, side effects, practical obstacles, or no perceived need. About one-quarter (23%) of patients were referred to specialized care at some time-point.

Limitations: Moderate sample size. Data collected in 2002-2004.

Conclusions: The majority of depressive patients in primary health care had been offered pharmacotherapy, psychotherapeutic support, or both. However, effectiveness of these efforts may have been limited by lack of systematic follow-up and poor adherence to both pharmacotherapy and psychosocial treatment.