Table 1.

Key clinical recommendations

Recommendation	References
Consider a broad psychiatric diagnosis when assessing a patient with depressed or anxious mood, as misdiagnosis is frequent and negatively affects outcomes	12, 39
Make specific and appropriate referrals to specific forms of psychotherapy, such as IPT, CBT and PST	40, 41
Providing key educational messages at the beginning of treatment can enhance treatment adherence, particularly with regard to antidepressant medication use	14, 42
Early monitoring for adherence, treatment response and side effects can improve adherence and outcomes	18, 42, 43
Treat depression until remission in order to decrease relapse rate	20, 44, 45
Change treatment after 6 weeks if there is no or very minimal response to initial medication	22, 46
Evaluate every anxious or depressed patient for alcohol or drug abuse	29, 47

Key recommendations and supporting references for ways to improve clinical outcomes for patients with depression and anxiety disorders.

CBT = Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, IPT = Interpersonal Therapy, PST = Problem-solving Therapy.