[Consultation for patients with chronic depression: an explorative impact analysis]

Consultation is an efficient method to share expertise in health care without having to transfer the treatment to another provider.

To model the effects of a national consultation network for patients with persistent depression who are in treatment in specialized mental health care facilities in the Netherlands.

Explorative impact analysis using national data on patients with depression as their primary diagnosis and using specialized mental health for longer than 2 years.

All scenarios showed that the systematic use of consultation can provide health benefits to patients while saving costs. Economic gains consisted of both direct effects on health care costs and of effects on the ability of patients to work. In all scenarios consultation had substantial effects on the duration of treatment, which might favourably impact existing waiting times for patients.

Consultation is a dominant intervention as it saves costs, while improving health. It may have substantial effect on the currently unacceptable waiting lists for mental health care. The Netherlands Network Depression aims to develop a consultation network, improving the logistics, methods and accessibility of consultation.