The effects of a shared decision-making intervention in primary care of depression: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Patient-centred depression care approaches should better address barriers of insufficient patient information and involvement in the treatment decision process. Additional research is needed to test the effect of increased patient participation on outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess, if patient participation in decision-making via a shared decision-making intervention leads to improved treatment adherence, satisfaction, and clinical outcome without increasing consultation time.

The impact of patient participation on adherence and clinical outcome in primary care of depression.

Objective: Patient participation in shared treatment decision-making is hypothesized to improve depression treatment adherence and clinical outcomes in depressed patients. The study aim was to evaluate the impact of patient participation on these factors and to determine the variance of clinical outcome as the primary outcome variable.

Methods: A survey was administered to 30 general practitioners and 207 depressed patients, at initial consultation and 6-8 weeks later.

The assessment of depressive patients' involvement in decision making in audio-taped primary care consultations.

Objective: In primary care of depression treatment options such as antidepressants, counseling and psychotherapy are reasonable. Patient involvement could foster adherence and clinical outcome. However, there is a lack of empirical information about the extent to which general practitioners involve patients in decision making processes in this condition, and about the consultation time spent for distinct decision making tasks.