Text adapted from "The patient who is depressed" in Psychiatry in primary care by Raymond W. Lam, (CAMH, 2019).
Resources
For primary care practitioners
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments. Includes the most recent treatment guidelines for depression.
- Mood Disorder Questionnaire. A screener that can be used to rule out bipolar disorder.
- MoodFx for Clinicians. Self-help depression app that can be integrated into clinical practice.
- Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Supports diagnosis and assesses depression severity.
- SwitchRx. Online medication switching tool for clinicians.
For patients
- Antidepressant Skills Workbook, by Dan Bilsker and Randy Paterson, Simon Fraser University, 2005. Self-help manual for learning cognitive and behavioural strategies to change patterns that trigger depression.
- Depression Hurts. Website developed by the Mood Disorders Society of Canada that includes a symptom checklist and doctor discussion guide for patients.
- E-couch. Self-help program that teaches strategies for managing depression based on cognitive, behavioural and interpersonal therapies, as well as relaxation and physical activity.
- Mind Health BC. Includes a self-screening questionnaire, which then directs users to online and community resources.
- Mind over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, by David Greenberger and Christine Padesky, Guilford Press, 2015. CBT-based self-help workbook.
- MoodFx. Online self-help for screening and monitoring depression and related difficulties with anxiety, cognition and work performance.
- MoodGym. CBT-based self-help tool for learning skills to manage depression and anxiety.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bezchlibnyk-Butler, K.Z., Jeffries, J.J., Procyshyn, R.M. & Virani, A.S. (2014). Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs (20th ed.). Toronto, ON: Hogrefe & Huber.
Cipriani, A., Furukawa, T.A., Salanti, G., Geddes, J.R., Higgins, J.P., Chur- chill, R. Barbui, C. (2009). Comparative efficacy and acceptability of 12 new-generation antidepressants: A multiple-treatments meta-analysis. Lancet, 373, 746–758.
Katzman, M.A., Bleau, P. & Blier, P. (2014). Canadian clinical practice guide- lines for the management of anxiety, posttraumatic stress and obsessive- compulsive disorders. BMC Psychiatry, 14 (Suppl. 1), S1–S83.
Kennedy, S.H., Lam, R.W., McIntyre, R.S., Tourjman, S.V., Bhat, V., Blier, P CANMAT Depression Work Group. (2016). Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2016 Guidelines for the Manage- ment of Major Depressive Disorder in Adults. Section 3: Pharmacological treatments. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 61, 540–560.
Pearson, C., Janz, T. & Ali, J. (2013). Mental and substance use disorders in Canada. Health at a Glance (Statistics Canada catalogue no. 82-624-X). Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada.
Stahl, S.S. (2017). Prescriber’s Guide: Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology (6th ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Yeung, A.S., Jing, Y., Brenneman, S.K., Chang, T.E., Baer, L., Hebden, T Fava, M. (2012). Clinical Outcomes in Measurement-Based Treatment (COMET): A trial of depression monitoring and feedback to primary care physicians. Depression and Anxiety, 29, 865–873.
About the author
Raymond W. Lam, MD, FRCPC - Professor and BC Leadership Chair in Depression Research, and associate head of research, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
In Depression