Differentiated information on antidepressants at hospital discharge: a hypothesis‐generating study

Objectives This hypothesis‐generating study examined the clinical, humanistic and economic impact of providing differentiated medication information depending on the patient's information desire as compared with undifferentiated information to patients with a major depressive episode at hospital discharge. Methods A longitudinal multi‐centre study with quasi‐experimental design comprised two experimental groups ((un)differentiated antidepressant information) and one ‘no information’ group. Patients were followed up for 1 year assessing adherence, economic outcomes (i.e. costs of medicines, consultations, productivity loss and re‐admissions), clinical outcomes (i.e. depressive, anxiety and somatic symptoms and side effects) and humanistic outcomes (i.e. quality of life, satisfaction with information). A linear model for repeated measures was applied to assess differences over time and between groups. Key findings Ninety‐nine patients participated. Still participating 1 year later were 78. No beneficial effect was observed for adherence. Lower productivity loss ( P  = 0.021) and costs of consultations with healthcare professionals ( P  = 0.036) were observed in the differentiated group. About one‐third of patients were re‐admitted within 1 year following discharge. Patients in the ‘no information’ group had significantly more re‐admissions than patients in the undifferentiated group ( P  = 0.031). Conclusions The hypothesis of differentiated information could be supported for economic outcomes only. Future medication therapy intervention studies should apply a more rigorous study design.