Impact of a Depression Care Management Program for Hospitalized Cardiac Patients

BACKGROUND: Depression is independently associated with poor outcomes among patients with acute cardiac disease. Collaborative care depression management programs have been used in outpatients to improve depression outcomes, but such a program had never been initiated in the hospital or used for patients with a wide range of cardiac illnesses. METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a prospective, randomized trial of a low-intensity, 12-week collaborative care program versus usual care for 175 depressed patients hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome, arrhythmia, or heart failure. Study outcomes, assessed using mixed regression models to compare groups at 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 6 months, included mental health (depression, cognitive symptoms of depression, anxiety, and mental health-related quality of life) and medical (physical health-related quality of life, adherence to medical recommendations, and cardiac symptoms) outcomes. Collaborative care subjects (n=90) had significantly greater improvements on all mental health outcomes at 6 and 12 weeks, including rates of depression response (collaborative care, 59.7% versus usual care 33.7%; odds ratio, 2.91; P=0.003 at 6 weeks; 51.5% versus 34.4%; odds ratio, 2.02; P=0.04 at 12 weeks), though these effects decreased after intervention. At 6 months, intervention subjects had significantly greater self-reported adherence and significantly reduced number and intensity of cardiac symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with a broad range of cardiac diagnoses, a collaborative care depression management program initiated during hospitalization led to significant improvements in multiple clinically important mental health outcomes and had promising effects on relevant medical outcomes after intervention. Clinical Trial Registration- URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00847132.