Clinical trial NCT01924715: Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of ISTDP: A Quasi Experimental Study
Official title: Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of ISTDP: A Quasi Experimental Study
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Anxiety
Somatoform Disorders
Personality Disorders
Depression
Psychotic Disorders
Keywords: somatoform disorder
psychotherapy
depression
anxiety
personality disorder
Lead sponsor: Nova Scotia Health Authority
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2013-08-16
Enrollment: 1082
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 12
Maximum age (years): 90
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: All Major DSM IV categories included including mood, anxiety, personality, somatoform, dissociative, eating and psychotic disorders

Brief summary: Objective: To evaluate whether or not cases treated with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) facilitate healthcare cost reduction, whether any observed reduction is greater than that of a control group and whether any such gains would be maintained in follow up.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed in which pre and post healthcare cost and usage data were extracted for all ISTDP treated cases from 1999 to 2008 and compared to parallel measures of a control group of cases referred but never treated.

Detailed description: Importance: Psychiatric and psychological disorders result in excess health care service use and costs. Brief psychotherapy methods may be effective across a broad range of mental disorders and could therefore result in healthcare cost reduction.

Objective: To evaluate whether or not cases treated with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) facilitate healthcare cost reduction, whether any observed reduction is greater than that of a control group and whether any such gains would be maintained in follow up.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed in which pre and post healthcare cost and usage data were extracted for all ISTDP treated cases from 1999 to 2008 and compared to parallel measures of a control group of cases referred but never treated.

Setting: Treatments were provided at an urban University based psychotherapy service.

Participants: All cases from the province of Nova Scotia treated within the research time frame were included. 890 patients were included with a very broad range of psychiatric disorders including anxiety, mood, somatoform, personality and psychotic disorders. 192 referred but never see cases served as non randomized controls.

Intervention(s): ISTDP is an emotionally focused form of brief psychotherapy which has supportive, cognitive, experiential and primarily psychodynamic elements. In this setting the average length of treatment was 7.3 sessions and cost an estimated $500 dollars per treatment course.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* All patients referred for ISTDP treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients not referred for ISTDP treatment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Total Doctor and Hospital Costs
timeFrame: 1 year pre versus 3 years post
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Hospital costs
timeFrame: 1 year pre versus 3 years post
measure: Hospital Days
timeFrame: 1 year per versus 3 years post
measure: Doctor Visits
timeFrame: 1 year pre versus 3 years post
measure: Doctor Costs
timeFrame: 1 year pre versus 3 years post
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Halifax
country: Canada
facility: Capital Health
state: Nova Scotia
Study officials:
affiliation: Nova Scotia Health Authority
name: Allan A Abbass, MD, FRCPC
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Abbass A, Kisely S, Rasic D, Town JM, Johansson R. Long-term healthcare cost reduction with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy in a tertiary psychiatric service. J Psychiatr Res. 2015 May;64:114-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.03.001. Epub 2015 Mar 25.