[Improved recognition and treatment of depression with occasional faster recovery through postgraduate training of family practitioners]

Abstract

Objective: To examine to what extent postgraduate training of general practitioners (GPs) with the Intervention Study Primary Care (INSTEL) programme improved detection, diagnosis, and treatment of depression, and whether the course of depression was influenced favourably.

Design: Prospective, comparative.

Setting: Academic Hospital Groningen, discipline group Psychiatry and General Practice, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Method: General practitioners active in ten practices in Groningen and surrounds were trained in recognition and treatment of depression. The first group consisted of ten GPs who had not participated in psychiatrically oriented research before, the second group of seven GPs who had participated in such research. Both before and after the training, a group of patients aged 18-65 years visiting these GPs' office hours were examined by the investigators for presence of depression with the aid of questionnaires. The GPs recorded of each patient whether or not they found him/her depressed, and they mentioned the treatment. The researchers assessed the outcomes of depressed patients shortly after the index consultation and at 3 and 12-month follow-up.

Results: Before the training a questionnaire was completed by 1778 patients, of whom 179 were depressed; after the training a questionnaire was completed by 1724 patients, of whom 155 were depressed. Detection and diagnosis of depression improved in the first group of GPs, but not in the second group. Treatment improved for patients in both groups. In terms of symptoms, illness duration, daily functioning, and absence from work patients recovered slightly faster from their depression after the training, although the effects were weak, not always statistically significant (p < 0.05), and mostly limited to the subgroup of recognized depressions with a recent onset. At the 12-month follow-up the pre-post differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The postgraduate training with the INSTEL programme appears to be an effective intervention that improves treatment and somewhat speeds up recovery in recent onset cases.