Major depressive disorder affects 20% of patients in primary care clinics, however despite years of research and program development by the Department of Health and Human Services and major healthcare foundations, few patients are treated in accordance with current best practice guidelines.
Depression is a serious disease. According to the World Health Organization it is the number one cause of disability worldwide. If patients don’t receive proper care, they can experience substantioal medical impairment, including exacerbation of diabetes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, pain syndromes, and others. Patients with inadequately treated depression experience work impairment, relationship problems, emotional suffering, and 15% commit suicide.
Best Practices – Depression is an evidence-based service that patients use to help their doctors give them care based on the most current biomedical research. Using information technology developed by an internationally recognized mood disorders expert, it takes advantage of patients’ natural motivation to get better, and achieves what expensive systems re-engineering programs have failed to do.
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