Efficacy Study of a Computer Decision Support System to Treat Depression (CDSS-D)

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depressive Disorder

Treatments: Other: Computerized Decision Support System for Depression (CDSS-D); Other: Usual Care (UC)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT00551083

R01 MH-164062-01A1

S1143107

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study was designed to test the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a Computerized Decision Support System for depression (CDSS-D) during acute care in a primary care setting.

Full description

The research project was designed to test the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a Computerized Decision Support System for depression (CDSS-D) during acute care in a primary care setting. The basic experimental design was a two-group, two-site study design. Three different clinics with a total of 4 primary care physicians agreed and provided informed consent and participated in the study. Half of the physicians used the CDSS-D to treat patients with MDD and the other half provided Usual Care (UC) treatment.

The intervention, CDSS-D, incorporated a pre-existing depression treatment algorithm (Texas Medication Algorithm Project for Depression, Trivedi et al) with computer decision support programming, providing the treatment group physicians with a computerized algorithm.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Outpatients aged 18 and over
• Met Criteria for Non-Psychotic Major Depressive Disorder
• Had a baseline HRSD-17 score of at least 14

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with a current Axis I diagnosis of somatization disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Patients with current alcohol or substance dependence
• Women with a positive pregnancy test or who are lactating
• Women of child-bearing potential who are not practicing a clinically accepted method of contraception
• Patients with general medical conditions that contraindicate antidepressant medications
• Patient whose clinical status requires inpatient or day hospital treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

CDSS-D

Experimental group

Description:

Computer Decision Support System for Depression (CDSS-D) - This arm provided physicians with a computerized treatment algorithm and a decision support system to treat their patients suffering Major Depressive Disorder

Treatment:

Other: Computerized Decision Support System for Depression (CDSS-D)

UC

Active Comparator group

Description:

Usual Care (UC) - This group of physicians treated their patients suffering from Major Depressive Disorder with their standard treatment as usual, and received no algorithm support with regard to treatment decisions

Treatment:

Other: Usual Care (UC)