How the medical comorbidity of depressed patients differs across health care settings: results from the Medical Outcomes Study
- 1 December 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in American Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 148 (12) , 1688-1696
- https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.148.12.1688
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Although depression is one of the most common problems of medical and psychiatric outpatients, it has not been clear whether the extent of medical comorbidity among depressed patients varies across major types of clinical settings in which depressed patients receive care--especially by type of treating clinician (general medical versus mental health specialty) or type of payment for services (prepaid versus fee-for-service). METHODS: The authors examined these issues using data on 1,152 adult outpatients with current depressive symptoms and a lifetime history of unipolar depressive disorder who received care in one of three health care delivery systems in three U.S. sites. RESULTS: Depressed patients had a similarly high prevalence (64.9%- 71.0%) of any of eight common chronic medical conditions whether they were seen in the general medical or specialty mental health sector; however, those visiting medical clinicians had a significantly higher prevalence of the two most common chronic medical c...Keywords
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