Name:	ProCEED
Title:	Evaluation of a system of structured, pro-active care for chronic depression in primary care
Researchers:	Felicitas Rost and Elaine McMahon (Research fellows and Project Managers)
Funding Body:	The Big Lottery Fund
Funding Awarded:	£374,665
Start Date:	01/10/2007
End Date:	31/03/2008

 

Background

Depression is common in general practice, with many patients having a recurrent or chronic disorder, associated with significant psychological, physical or social problems and resulting in considerable health and social costs. There is evidence that long-term management of such patients can be inconsistent.

ProCEED

We are testing a pr-active, ‘managed care’ strategy. This is similar to the model used for patients with other chronic illnesses such as asthma and diabetes, and involved regular follow-up by practice nurses, with GP back-up, of patients at risk of recurrent or chronic depression. Such a model has shown benefits for depressed patients in the USA, but their health-care system us different, and so the particular approach to be examined in this study has been developed for the UK. This is a Big Lottery funded project and we are working with the voluntary organisation MIND.