Quality Of Depression Care Improved

Quality of care for depression is improved when patients participate actively in the patient-physician encounter and when physicians explore and validate patient concerns. This analysis of data from a randomized trial that included 152 primary care physicians found that physician exploration and validation of patients’ concerns - including the patient’s symptoms, ideas, expectations, functioning and feelings - is linked to quality of care for depression. Higher levels of validation of patients’ concerns are associated with higher rates of prescribing antidepressants for patients who will likely benefit from them, and with a weakened effect of patient requests on prescribing behavior, lowering the likelihood that patients will receive unnecessary medication.

Exploring and Validating Patient Concerns: Relation to Prescribing for Depression
By Ronald M. Epstein, M.D., et al

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