According to research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health referring patients with mental health problems to talking therapies potentially cuts using healthcare services and the amount of sick leave.
In order to calculate the impact of common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety and their impact on health service use and sick leave, researchers evaluated routinely collected healthcare data of over 152,000 patients registered with family doctors in East London and in Yorkshire.
Their study was focused on various factors that included the number of sick notes family doctors issued, antidepressant prescriptions, how many people used emergency care and outpatient clinics and the number and length of those who were admitted to hospital.
The researchers compared how many people with and without common mental health problems used healthcare resources at the same practices between 2007 and 2009 and those who received talking therapies under the UK government’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) scheme six months before and after their referral.
Of one in five patients diagnosed with depression or anxiety, one in ten was diagnosed during the study period. The researchers discovered that overall, those with common mental health problems used substantially more health resources compared with those without. The results showed that people with common mental health problems were five-times more often prescribed with antidepressants and admitted to hospital, resulting in longer hospital stays and issued with ten times more sick notes compared with those with no mental health problems. They also had more outpatient appointments and used more emergency care services but only slightly more than 6% of patients were referred to IAPT during the study period. Of those referred, almost two thirds were female, most between the ages of 20 to 54 years, of white ethnicity and from more socially deprived areas. Although they used fewer hospital services and were issued with fewer sick notes, they were prescribed with more antidepressants. The authors suggest this may indicate that those under the IAPT scheme may have followed their treatment regime better or that they were referred soon after their condition had developed.
The authors conclude writing:
“There were marked differences between those with [common mental health problems] and people referred to IAPT and the rest of the registered population. At a time when there is pressure to control increasing health costs, this study suggests that IAPT may contribute to reducing health service usage.”
Written by Petra Rattue