Quick study guide on the cost of depression
Researchers at Rutgers University of New Brunswick, NJ, investigated a population of more than 5,000 New Jersey Medicaid recipients who tested positive for HIV between 1991 and 1996 to assess the prevalence and predictors of diagnosed depression and to compare utilization and costs between those treated with antidepressants and those untreated.1
The investigation resulted in the following findings:1
• 18.2% were diagnosed with depression.
• 54.2% of the total population were men, but only 15.3% of those diagnosed with depression were male.
• 21.6% of the females in the group were diagnosed with depression.
• 22.5% of the white patients were depressed, and whites consisted of 19.2% of the total group.
• 16.2% of the African-Americans were depressed, and 62.6% of the overall group was African-American.
• 20.3% of the Hispanics were depressed, and 17.6% of the total group was Hispanic.
• Injection drug users, whether or not in a methadone treatment program, were much more likely to be depressed than nonusers, with 30.5% consistently on a methadone maintenance program and 26.2% on no program diagnosed with depression, compared with only 8% of noninjection drug users diagnosed as depressed.
• Those patients diagnosed with depression who were treated with antidepressants had an average monthly inpatient expenditure of $1,531, compared with an average monthly inpatient expenditure of $1,884 for those patients who were depressed and not treated with antidepressants.
• Nearly 40% of patients diagnosed with depression were not prescribed antidepressants.
• Patients receiving antidepressants were more likely to be prescribed antiretroviral drugs.
Reference
1. Sambamoorthi U, Walkup J, Olfson M, Crystal S. Antidepressant treatment and health services utilization among HIV-infected Medicaid patients diagnosed with depression. J Gen Int Med 2000; 15:311-320.
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