Cognitive behavioral therapy for depressive disorders: Outcomes from a multi-state, multi-site primary care practice

Primary Care Behavioral Health in Sweden - a protocol of a cluster randomized trial evaluating outcomes related to implementation, organization, and patients (KAIROS)

BACKGROUND

Providing comprehensive and continuous care for patients whose conditions have mental or behavioral components is a central challenge in primary care and an important part of improving universal health coverage. There is a great need for high and routine availability of psychological interventions, but traditional methods for delivering psychotherapy often result in low reach and long wait times. Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) is a method for organizing primary care in which behavioral health staff provide brief, flexible interventions to a large part of the population in active collaboration with other providers. While PCBH holds promise in addressing important challenges, it has not yet been thoroughly evaluated.

METHODS

This cluster randomized trial will assess 17 primary care centers (PCCs) that are starting a PCBH implementation process. The PCCs will be divided into two groups, with one starting immediate implementation and the other acting as a control, implementing six months later. The purpose of the study is to strengthen the evidence base for PCBH regarding implementation-, organization-, and patient-level outcomes, taking into consideration that there is a partially dependent relationship between the three levels. Patient outcomes (such as increased daily functioning and reduction of symptoms) may be dependent on organizational changes (such as availability of treatment, waiting times and interprofessional teamwork), which in turn requires change in implementation outcomes (most notably, model fidelity). In addition to the main analysis, five secondary analyses will compare groups based on different combinations of randomization and time periods, specifically before and after each center achieves sufficient PCBH fidelity.

DISCUSSION

A randomized comparison of PCBH and traditional primary care has, to our knowledge, not been made before. While the naturalistic setting and the intricacies of implementation pose certain challenges, we have designed this study in an effort to evaluate the causal effects of PCBH despite these complex aspects. The results of this project will be helpful in guiding decisions on how to organize the delivery of behavioral interventions and psychological treatment within the context of primary care in Sweden and elsewhere.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05335382. Retrospectively registered on March 13th, 2022.

Medical and nonmedical use of psychiatric medications among medical students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Introduction:

Psychiatric medication use has increased recently among college students. This includes antidepressants, opioids, stimulants, analgesics, sedatives, and anxiolytics, which could be self-administered without medical supervision.

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of medical and nonmedical use of psychiatric prescription medications and its correlation with academic performance, demographic data as well as the motives for the nonmedical use.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study aims to assess the psychiatric medication use with or without prescription with the motives behind it, and demographic data of the students at medical colleges in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Results:

A total of 1268 responded to the questionnaire. 251 (20%) of the participants reported using some psychiatric medications in their lifetime, while 191 (15%) participants used some psychiatric medications in the last 12 months. Antidepressants were most used in the surveyed population 144 (57%), followed by opioids/pain relief medications 62 (24%) and anxiolytics 39 (15%). Only 44 surveyed students (3.5%) reported nonmedical use of these psychiatric medications. As for the motives of nonmedical use, the greatest portion reported to use it for “relax or relieve tension” 12 (29%), followed by “relieve pain caused by other health problems” 8 (20%), and “medication to get through the day” 6 (15%).

Conclusion:

Nonmedical use of psychiatric medications among medical students in Riyadh is several times lower than reports by other researchers. Future research should focus on collecting more participants who are using medications without prescription and conduct cross-cultural studies to examine factors contributing to such low rates of illicit psychiatric medication use.