Table 4. 12-Month Medication and Health Care Use.
| Variable | Intervention (123) | Usual Care (127) | P value * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean (SD) | Median (Range) | Mean (SD) | Median (Range) | ||
| Medication use, months | |||||
| Antidepressants | 9.3 (4.2) | 12 (0-12) | 2.0 (3.2) | 0 (0-12) | < .0001 |
| Tricyclics † | 1.2 (2.7) | 0 (0-12) | 1.2 (2.6) | 0 (0-12) | .99 |
| Other psychotropics | 0.7 (2.2) | 0 (0-12) | 0.7 (2.3) | 0 (0-12) | .93 |
| Opioid analgesics | 3.5 (4.6) | 1 (0-12) | 3.0 (4.2) | 1 (0-12) | .40 |
| Other analgesics ‡ | 2.6 (3.1) | 1 (0-12) | 2.8 (3.4) | 1 (0-12) | .57 |
| Health care use, number | |||||
| Outpatient visits | |||||
| Primary care | 6.4 (5.8) | 5 (0-35) | 5.8 (5.4) | 4 (0-33) | .11 |
| Medical specialty | 1.3 (2.3) | 0 (0-16) | 1.6 (2.9) | 0 (0-19) | .02 |
| Surgical specialty | 2.7 (4.0) | 1 (0-24) | 2.4 (3.5) | 1 (0-26) | .11 |
| Mental health | 1.6 (7.9) | 0 (0-82) | 0.7 (2.9) | 0 (0-24) | < .0001 |
| Other | 1.3 (3.3) | 0 (0-23) | 1.3 (2.6) | 0 (0-18) | .89 |
| Emergency dept visits | 1.8 (3.4) | 1 (0-27) | 1.2 (2.1) | 0 (0-14) | < .0001 |
| Hospital days | 1.5 (5.8) | 0 (0-49) | 0.8 (2.5) | 0 (0-15) | < .0001 |
*
Group differences on medication use were tested using t-test and on health care use using Poisson modeling.
†
Typically low-dose (< 100 mg amitriptyline or equivalent) rather than antidepressant dose level
‡
The use of “other analgesics” may be underestimated since simple analgesics are often obtained without a prescription and would not be captured by electronic prescribing data.