[Continuing education and quality management measures for the implementation of clinical practice guidelines]

In the past years it could be shown that evidence-based guideline-oriented treatment of depressive patients leads to better diagnosis, to more adequate therapy and to better networking of the different levels of care. And yet, guidelines have been rarely used. On the other hand, better short-dated support of depressive patients is achievable by medical education. But to ensure the application of guidelines in the long term, it is necessary to consider individual practice and local/regional conditions. There is a need for interactive and experience-oriented educational concepts. The present educational concept of "Out-patient Depression Management" has been developed as part of the "Comprehensive Quality Management in Out-patient Care" project and implemented in two study regions of Southern Baden and North Rhine. The depression management concept was designed as a combination of interactive, guideline-oriented continuous medical education with interdisciplinary quality circles. The evaluation of the depression management concept shows very positive ratings from both primary care physicians and psychiatrists: 70% of the primary care physicians and 83% of the psychiatrists were satisfied or much satisfied with the program. 70% of the primary care physicians and 50% of the psychiatrists evaluated the usefulness for practice as good or very good.