IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v123y2019i11p1021-1027.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experimenting locally with a stepped-care approach for the treatment of mild to moderate mental disorders in France: Challenges and opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Gandré, Coralie
  • Rosenberg, Sebastian
  • Coldefy, Magali
  • Or, Zeynep

Abstract

In France, publicly funded mental care services are mostly hospital-based and focused on treating severe illnesses. Mild to moderate mental disorders are typically managed by general practitioners (GP) who often lack specific training to treat these conditions. Antidepressant prescribing levels for mild to moderate conditions are inadequately high. Public reimbursement for psychotherapies provided by psychologists is generally not available. This paper presents a local experiment with a stepped-care approach for the treatment of mild to moderate mental disorders in four French départements launched in 2018. The experiment includes the introduction of a standardized assessment protocol for GPs, clear referral guidelines, and full reimbursement of visits to psychologists upon GP referral. Seemingly simple, the policy raises several issues related to the regulation, training and reimbursement of psychologists, and illustrates the need for careful preparation and workforce planning to ensure success and stakeholder support. An independent evaluation of the local experiments is planned, which provides the opportunity to fine-tune the policy before any broader rollout. The issues raised in France and the on-going debate is relevant for other countries preparing similar policies for improving mental care.

Suggested Citation

  • Gandré, Coralie & Rosenberg, Sebastian & Coldefy, Magali & Or, Zeynep, 2019. "Experimenting locally with a stepped-care approach for the treatment of mild to moderate mental disorders in France: Challenges and opportunities," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(11), pages 1021-1027.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:123:y:2019:i:11:p:1021-1027
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.08.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851019301903
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.08.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irving Kirsch & Brett J Deacon & Tania B Huedo-Medina & Alan Scoboria & Thomas J Moore & Blair T Johnson, 2008. "Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(2), pages 1-9, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kovess-Masfety, V. & Rabaté, L. & Caby, D. & Nicaise, P., 2023. "French mental health care system: Analysis of care utilisation patterns and the case for a stepped care approach," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weisz, George & Knaapen, Loes, 2009. "Diagnosing and treating premenstrual syndrome in five western nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1498-1505, April.
    2. Felicity Thomas & Lorraine Hansford & Joseph Ford & Katrina Wyatt & Rosemarie McCabe & Richard Byng, 2018. "Moral narratives and mental health: rethinking understandings of distress and healthcare support in contexts of austerity and welfare reform," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Klaus Munkholm & Stephanie Winkelbeiner & Philipp Homan, 2020. "Individual response to antidepressants for depression in adults-a meta-analysis and simulation study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Ad. J. W. van de Gevel & Charles N. Noussair, 2013. "The Nexus between Artificial Intelligence and Economics," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-642-33648-5, October.
    5. Bütikofer, Aline & Cronin, Christopher J. & Skira, Meghan M., 2020. "Employment effects of healthcare policy: Evidence from the 2007 FDA black box warning on antidepressants," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. William Hollingworth & Christopher G. Fawsitt & Padraig Dixon & Larisa Duffy & Ricardo Araya & Tim J. Peters & Howard Thom & Nicky J. Welton & Nicola Wiles & Glyn Lewis, 2020. "Cost-Effectiveness of Sertraline in Primary Care According to Initial Severity and Duration of Depressive Symptoms: Findings from the PANDA RCT," PharmacoEconomics - Open, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 427-438, September.
    7. Bishop, Felicity L. & Jacobson, Eric E. & Shaw, Jessica R. & Kaptchuk, Ted J., 2012. "Scientific tools, fake treatments, or triggers for psychological healing: How clinical trial participants conceptualise placebos," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 767-774.
    8. Garret Christensen & Edward Miguel, 2018. "Transparency, Reproducibility, and the Credibility of Economics Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 920-980, September.
    9. Nagel, Mats, 2020. "Changing perspectives: Towards detailed phenotyping in genetics," Thesis Commons a4nz2, Center for Open Science.
    10. Liebert, Rachel & Gavey, Nicola, 2009. ""There are always two sides to these things": Managing the dilemma of serious adverse effects from SSRIs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1882-1891, May.
    11. Janus Christian Jakobsen & Jane Lindschou Hansen & Ole Jakob Storebø & Erik Simonsen & Christian Gluud, 2011. "The Effects of Cognitive Therapy Versus ‘Treatment as Usual’ in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-11, August.
    12. Busfield, Joan, 2015. "Assessing the overuse of medicines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 199-206.
    13. Lennon, Carter A. & Huedo-Medina, Tania B. & Gerwien, Daniel P. & Johnson, Blair T., 2012. "A role for depression in sexual risk reduction for women? A meta-analysis of HIV prevention trials with depression outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 688-698.
    14. Malcom Hopwood, 2020. "The Shared Decision-Making Process in the Pharmacological Management of Depression," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 13(1), pages 23-30, February.
    15. Light, Donald W. & Lexchin, Joel R., 2021. "Pharmaceuticals as a market for “lemons”: Theory and practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    16. Janus Christian Jakobsen & Jane Lindschou Hansen & Erik Simonsen & Christian Gluud, 2011. "The Effect of Interpersonal Psychotherapy and other Psychodynamic Therapies versus ‘Treatment as Usual’ in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-9, April.
    17. Michael A Sugarman & Amy M Loree & Boris B Baltes & Emily R Grekin & Irving Kirsch, 2014. "The Efficacy of Paroxetine and Placebo in Treating Anxiety and Depression: A Meta-Analysis of Change on the Hamilton Rating Scales," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    18. André Russowsky Brunoni & Mariana Lopes & Ted J Kaptchuk & Felipe Fregni, 2009. "Placebo Response of Non-Pharmacological and Pharmacological Trials in Major Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(3), pages 1-10, March.
    19. Lijuan Guo & Zhaowei Kong & Yanjie Zhang, 2019. "Qigong-Based Therapy for Treating Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-11, March.
    20. Giuliano Masiero & Fabrizio Mazzonna & Sandro Steinbach & Olaf Verbeek, 2019. "The effect of local growth in antidepressant consumption on mental health outcomes," IdEP Economic Papers 1902, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:123:y:2019:i:11:p:1021-1027. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.