Patterns and Predictors of Depression Treatment among Older Adults with Dementia and Depression in Ambulatory Care Settings in the United States

Abstract

Specific Aims: Dementia, or neurocognitive disorder (NCD), is the deterioration of performance in mental function, and is a disease state only expected to become more prevalent in the coming decades. Depression is twice as likely to develop in this population and is also shown to increase the rate of decline in those with NCD. This study was designed to determine patterns and predictors of depression treatment in elderly dementia patients in the ambulatory care setting in the United States using the Anderson Behavioral Model (ABM) Methods: We conducted retrospective cross-sectional study design by using multiple years (2005–2015) of data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), an ongoing yearly survey administered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NAMCS uses a multistage probability design to obtain systematic random weekly samples of patients from physicians across the nation using a Patient Record Form capable of recording up to three diagnoses codes and eight prescription medications for each visit. A weighted frequency for national prevalence values was generated from our data analysis. A multivariate regression analysis was completed to determine which predisposing, enabling, and need factors were significant determinants to the nature of antidepressant treatment. Main Results: A total of 655 (un-weighted) ambulatory visits by older adults with dementia and depression were recorded by National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, or a national estimate of 14.46 million elderly patients visits with both NCD and depression. Predisposing factors such as race, age, sex, geographic region, and metro/non-metro; enabling factors such as insurance and physician specialty; and need factors such as new prescription drug, new patient, or reason for visit, or chronic disease states, were recorded. Multivariate analysis revealed gender, physician specialty, metro/non-metro, geographical region, and number of medications were significant determinants in how an elder NCD patient in the ambulatory setting receives treatment for depression. Conclusions: 62.89% of patients were treated for depression, with 61.45% of all patients receiving an antidepressant and 4.94% of patients receiving psychotherapy. Psychotherapy was utilized infrequently in this population, and SSRIs were the most common form of pharmacotherapy. This suggests this patient population is vulnerable to untreated depression and reveals a need for long-term studies investigating health outcomes in these patients.