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U.S. Preventive Services Task Force


Screening: Depression

Table 5. Summary of the Effect of Feedback from Screening on Patient Outcomes1

Author, Year (Reference) Outcome Measured Outcome Data Absolute Difference
(95% CI)
P Value2
Intervention Group Value Control Group Value
Johnstone and Goldberg, 1976 (14)3 Mean months of depression in 1 year 4.2 6.3 -2.1 (NR) < 0.01
Moore et al., 1978 (15)3 NR NR NR NR  
Linn and Yager, 1980 (16)4 NR NR NR NR  
Zung and King, 1983 (17)5 Percentage of participants with <12-point decrease on SDS at 1 month 33% 65% -32% (-61% to -3%) 0.04
Magruder-Habib et al., 1990 (18) NR NR NR NR  
Callahan et al., 1994 (19) and 1996 (21)5 Percentage of participants with HAM-D > or = 10 at 6 months 87% 88% -1% (-11% to 9%)  
Dowrick, 1995 (20)3 NR NR NR    
Lewis et al., 1996 (22)3 Percentage of participants who had not improved at 6 weeks (GHQ score > or = 2) 69% 74.5% -5 percentage points (-14 to 3 percentage points)  
Reifler et al., 1996 (23)3 Zung SDS score 6 6 6  
Williams et al., 1999 (11)3 Percentage of participants who were depressed at 3 months DSM-III-R criteria 37% 46% -8 percentage points (-21 to 4 percentage points)  
Katzelnick et al., 2000 (12) 5 Percentage of participants who were depressed at 12 months (HAM-D > or = 7) 55% 72% -18 percentage points (-27 to -8 percentage points) < 0.001
Wells et al., 2000 (24)3 Percentage of participants who were depressed at 6 months 55.4% 64.4% -9 percentage points (-15 to -3 percentage points) 0.005
Whooley et al., 2000 (25) 3 Percentage of participants who were depressed at 24 months (GDS > or = 6) 42% 50% -8 percentage points (-21 to 6 percentage points) > 0.2
Rost et al., 2001 (13) 5 Mean change in CES-D score 21.7 13.5 8.2 (NR) < 0.05

Note: CES-D indicates Center for Epidemiologic Study Depression scale; DSM-III-R, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition, revised; GDS, Geriatric Depression Scale; GHQ, General Health Questionnaire; HAM-D, Hamilton Depression Scale; NR, not reported and cannot be calculated from available data; SDS, Self-Depression Scale; SDDS, Symptom-Driven Diagnostic System for Primary Care.

1 All figures are rounded to nearest percentage.
2 P values were not always reported.
3 Denominator is patients who screened positive.
4 Denominator is all patients.
5 Denominator is patients who screened positive and were confirmed to have major depression on diagnostic interview.
6 No data were given; the investigators stated that there was "no difference for those screening positive for any disorder."

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