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Collaborative Care Can Decrease Mental Health Costs


I briefly scanned the Robert Wood Johnson synthesis report on mental and medical co-morbidity so I thought I’d summarize the highlights for the blog. If you’d rather watch the recorded web seminar you can hear it here.

The report relied on systemic literature review to look at the relative risk and mortality associated with co-morbid medical and mental health conditions. The looked at studies using structure clinical interviews, self-report, screening instruments and health care utilization data (diagnostic codes reported to Medicaid).

This is what they found:

  • 68 percent of adults with a mental disorder had at least one general medical condition, and 29 percent of those with a medical disorder had a comorbid mental health condition
  • These findings support the conclusion that there should be strong integration of medical and mental health care Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*

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