Measuring outcomes in patients with depression or anxiety: an essential part of clinical practice

Hickie, Ian B; Davenport, Tracey A; Andrews, Gavin

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04734.x

Topics

For most doctors, it would be inconceivable to manage common long term disorders (such as diabetes or asthma) or serious risk factors (like hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia) without using standard clinical, pathology or other investigative parameters. The data from standard clinical measures have underpinned the drive towards outcomes-based healthcare and have long been recognised as the optimal response to "uninformed patients, skeptical payers, frustrated physicians and besieged health care executives".1

1 School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales at St George Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
2 School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: ian.hickie@beyondblue.org.au

Competing interests:

None identified.

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