Treatment for depression following the 1996 National Depression Screening Day

Objective: Characteristics of the subsequent treatment received by people who screened positive for depression in the 1996 National Depression Screening Day were investigated. Method: A follow-up telephone survey was completed by 1,502 randomly selected participants from 2,800 sites. Results: Of 927 people for whom additional evaluation was recommended, 602 (64.9%) obtained evaluations and 503 (83.6%) received treatment. Of these 503, 260 (51.7%) received psychotherapy and medication, 130 (25.8%) received medication only, and 93 (18.5%) received psychotherapy only. Compared with people without health or mental health insurance, individuals with health insurance (66.7% versus 57.5%) and mental health insurance (74.6% versus 55.3%) were more likely to comply with the recommendation to obtain follow-up evaluation. Conclusions: One-half of the people treated for depression received a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Lack of insurance was associated with not following the recommendation to obtain further evaluation and treatment.