P01-226 Healthcare resource utilization and costs of mild, moderate, and severe depression in the workforce in the United States

Objective Document the healthcare resource utilization and costs by severity for persons in the workforce with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods Using the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication data, workforce respondents (n=4,465) were categorized by clinical severity (not clinically depressed, mild, moderate, severe) using standard scales (CIDI/QIDS-SR). Outcomes measured over 12 months included prevalence of medical services/antidepressant use, average number of visits and days on antidepressants, prevalence of treatment adequacy, and medical/drug costs. Costs represent insurer payments to providers and were estimated by weighting utilization measures by unit costs obtained for similar services used by depressed patients in a U.S. employer claims database for the corresponding period (2000-2001). Outcomes were compared across depression severity groups using multivariate analyses adjusting for demographics. Results Among the 539 depressed workforce respondents, 13.8% were mildly, 38.5% moderately and 47.7% severely depressed. A significant association existed between severity and prevalence of mental health services usage (19.1%, 27.2%, and 40.3% respectively, p Conclusions Among workforce respondents, there was a significant association between depression severity and treatment usage and costs, and between treatment adequacy and severity.