Mental health

The traditional model of mental health care is built around 50-minute visits to a psychiatrist or therapist in a mental health clinic. Unfortunately, that model reaches only a fraction of people living with depression, bipolar disorder, or other mental health conditions. And people who start mental health treatment often drop out—or return so seldom that treatment has minimal benefit. New approaches are needed for effective mental health care to reach all people who might benefit. Mental health researchers at Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) are leaders in developing and evaluating those new approaches.

"Patient-centered mental health care means re-organizing care around patients' needs and preferences," said Gregory Simon MD, MPH, senior investigator at GHRI and a Group Health psychiatrist. "For people living with depression or bipolar disorder, that often requires a major emphasis on motivation and outreach. The long-term goal is to help patients to recognize high-quality care and to believe that they deserve it."

"Person-centered care emphasizes that people living with mental problems are not defined by their condition," added Evette Ludman, PhD, senior research associate at GHRI. "It broadens the focus of care far beyond the traditional emphasis on resolving symptoms."

Examples of innovative patient-centered programs developed at GHRI include:

"GHRI research has developed evidence-based models of patient-centered care that have guided efforts to improve depression care in several European countries and in the United States by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the Mayo Clinic, Bureau of Primary Health Care, and many other health plans," said Michael Von Korff, ScD, senior investigator at GHRI. "In the next decade, we hope to find ways to make it easier for patients to receive effective treatments for common mental health problems, to benefit as many patients as possible."

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GHRI researchers in mental health

Affiliate researchers

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Recent publications on mental health

2010

Ehlenbach WJ, Hough CL, Crane PK, Haneuse SJ, Carson SS, Curtis JR, Larson EB. Association between acute care and critical illness hospitalization and cognitive function in older adults. JAMA. 2010;303(8):763-70. PubMed

Lin EH, Rutter CM, Katon W, Heckbert SR, Ciechanowski P, Oliver MM, Ludman EJ, Young BA, Williams LH, McCulloch DK, Von Korff M. Depression and advanced complications of diabetes: a prospective cohort study. Diabetes Care. 2010 Feb;33(2):264-9. Epub 2009 Nov 23. PubMed

Ludman E, Simon GE, Ichikawa LE, Operskalski BH, Arterburn D, Linde JA, Jeffery RW, Rohde P, Finch EA. Does depression reduce the effectiveness of behavioral weight loss treatment? Behav Med. 2010;35(4):126-34. PubMed

Sherman KJ, Ludman EJ, Cook AJ, Hawkes RJ, Roy-Byrne PP, Bentley S, Brooks MZ, Cherkin DC. Effectiveness of therapeutic massage for generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial. Depress Anxiety. 2010 May;27(5):441-50. Epub 2010 Feb 23. PubMed

Tutty S, Spangler DL, Poppleton LE, Ludman EJ, Simon GE. Evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral teletherapy in depressed adults. Behav Ther. 2010 Jun;41(2):229-36. Epub 2010 Jan 6. PubMed

2009

Bonomi AE, Anderson ML, Reid RJ, Rivara FP, Carrell D, Thompson RS. Medical and psychosocial diagnoses in women with a history of intimate partner violence. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(18):1692-7. PubMed

Simon GE, Arterburn DE. Does comorbid psychiatric disorder argue for or against surgical treatment of obesity? Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2009;31(5):401-2. Epub 2009 Jul 3. PubMed

Simon GE, Ludman EJ, Rutter CM. Incremental benefit and cost of telephone care management and telephone psychotherapy for depression in primary care. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(10):1081-9. PubMed

Simon GE, Ludman EJ. It's time for disruptive innovation in psychotherapy. Lancet. 2009;374(9690):594-5. PubMed

2008

Katon WJ, Russo JE, Von Korff M, Lin EH, Ludman E, Ciechanowski PS. Long-term effects on medical costs of improving depression outcomes in patients with depression and diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2008;31(6):1155-9. Epub 2008 Mar 10. PubMed

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Our major research interests

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