Comparing Telepsychiatry and In-person Outcomes

Lawson Health Research Institute

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychiatric Disorders

Treatments: Device: Videoconference equipment (telepsychiatry)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00292058

7764101

07911E

R2354A01

Details and patient eligibility

About

Psychiatric consultation and short-term follow-up will produce equivalent clinical outcomes and be less costly when provided via videoconferencing (telepsychiatry) than when provided in-person.

Full description

We predict that patients referred by their family physician for a psychiatric consultation and, if needed, short-term follow-up will have equivalent clinical outcomes when seen via telepsychiatry as compared to those patients seen in-person. We also predicted that telepsychiatry will be cheaper than in-person care.Study Design: a single-centre equivalence trial.We will use a sample size calculation and analytical methods that are specifically tailored for equivalence trials.

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• patients referred by their family physicians for psychiatric consultation
• scores in the dysfunctional range on the Brief Symptom Inventory

Exclusion criteria

• patients incapable of consenting to the research
• patients referred for medico-legal or insurance reports

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)