2010-01-05 05:44:15
Rachael Rettner
Staff Writer
LiveScience.com rachael Rettner
staff Writer
livescience.com Mon Jan 4, 4:16 pm ET
About half of Americans with major depression do not receive treatment for the
condition, and in many cases the therapies are not consistent with the standard
of care, according to a new study.
The study also showed that ethnicity and race were important factors in
determining who received treatment, with Mexican Americans and African
Americans the least likely to have depression care.
While many people can feel sad from time to time, a depressive disorder occurs
when these feelings start to interfere with everyday life, preventing someone
from functioning normally, according to the National Institutes of Health
(NIH). The condition can be debilitating, hindering a person's ability to work,
sleep and eat. A combination of factors likely contributes to the disorder,
including imbalances in brain chemicals, genetics, and stressful situations,
the NIH says.
Pervious research has indicated that many Americans with depression go
untreated, but the current study was the first to break down large ethnic and
racial groups into subgroups to look at disparities in treatment.
The researchers used information from the National Institute of Mental Health's
Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys - a combination of three surveys
conducted between 2001 and 2003 with a total of 15,762 participants.
Of those surveyed, 8.3 percent had major depression, and about 50 percent of
those with the condition received at least one type of treatment. However, only
about 21 percent had therapies that followed accepted treatment guidelines from
the American Psychiatric Association. For example, a situation in which a
patient took antidepressants for only one week instead of 60 days and was not
monitored by a physician would be against the standard of care, said study
researcher Hector M. Gonz lez of Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.
Gonz lez and his colleagues also found that Mexican Americans, African
Americans and Caribbean blacks were less likely to receive drug treatment or
counseling. On the other hand, non-Latino whites and Puerto Ricans received the
highest use of both therapy types.
The results counter previous research that showed Latinos and whites have about
the same treatment rate, Gonz lez said. "By breaking Latinos down into
subethnicities, we found these disparities in care," Gonz lez told LiveScience.
The higher rates of depression care among Puerto Ricans found in Gonz lez's
study may explain why past research showed Latinos and whites receiving similar
care, he said.
The study also showed that psychotherapy (counseling) was used more than drug
therapy overall. Psychotherapy rates were highest amongst Mexican and African
Americans, suggesting that this type of therapy may be more accepted by these
groups and thus could be one method for improving depression care in these
minorities, Gonz lez said.
The results were published in the January issue of the Archives of General
Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association. The work was funded
by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, and
the National Institute on Aging.