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Treatment preferences among depressed primary care patients
M Dwight-Johnson1, C D Sherbourne, D Liao
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif, USA. mdwight@ucla.edu
Objective:
To understand patient factors that may affect the probability of receiving appropriate depression treatment, we examined treatment preferences and their predictors among depressed primary care patients.
Design:
Patient questionnaires and interviews.
Setting:
Forty-six primary care clinics in 7 geographic regions of the United States.
Participants:
One thousand one hundred eighty-seven English- and Spanish-speaking primary care patients with current depressive symptoms.
Measurements And Main Results:
Depressive symptoms and diagnoses were determined by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Treatment preferences and characteristics were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire and a telephone interview. Nine hundred eight-one (83%) patients desired treatment for depression. Those who preferred treatment were wealthier (odds ratio [OR], 3.7; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.8 to 7.9; P =.001) and had greater knowledge about antidepressant medication ( OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.6 to 4.4; P
Conclusions:
Despite low rates of treatment for depression, most depressed primary care patients desire treatment, especially counseling. Preferences for depression treatment vary by ethnicity, gender, income, and knowledge about treatments.