Hepatitis C Translating Initiatives for Depression Into Effective Solutions (HEPTIDES)

April 12, 2016 updated by: VA Office of Research and Development

Hepatitis C Translating Initiatives for Depression Into Solutions

Chronic infection with hepatitis C (CHC) is a common and expensive condition, and it disproportionately affects Veterans. Treatment with antiviral therapy reduces liver disease progression and improves health related quality of life. However, ~70% of Veterans with CHC are considered ineligible for antiviral treatment. Most of these patients are excluded due to the presence of co-existing depression and substance use. The proposed project will adapt and adopt an evidence-based collaborative depression care model in CHC clinics. By removing the leading contraindication for antiviral treatment, this project will potentially yield benefits that go far beyond the obvious quality of life benefit from antidepressant therapy itself.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Project Background and Rationale: Depression is highly prevalent, yet under-diagnosed and under-treated in CHC. Treatment models that increase collaborative management of depression by mental health and physical health clinicians can improve quality and outcomes, and collaborative care models have been identified as the best-practice for depression in VA primary care settings. However, the antiviral treatment for CHC patients may not benefit from the existing primary care-mental health integration because the antiviral treatment is time-limited and conducted in specialty clinics. Although there is little evidence evaluating the effects of collaborative depression care in specialty settings, QUERI HIV-hepatitis initiated one of the first such efforts that effectively implemented collaborative depression care in HIV clinics. Built on this experience, an intensive yet focused collaborative care model in CHC clinics may be effective in improving not only depression but also CHC care. This proposed study, "Hepatitis-Translating Initiatives for Depression into Effective Solutions (HEP-TIDES)" will target this issue.

Project Objectives: The proposal has three overarching primary aims and one exploratory aim. The primary aims are (1) adapt and adopt the collaborative care model for improving depression care in specialty CHC care settings, (2) compare the effectiveness of HEP-TIDES to usual care in improving CHC care, and (3) compare the effectiveness of HEP-TIDES to usual care in improving depression care. The exploratory aim is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of HEP-TIDES versus usual care.

Project Methods: HEP-TIDES is a multi-site, multi-method implementation project. HEP-TIDES will use evidence-based quality improvement (EBQI) methods to adapt and implement depression screening and the collaborative care model for depression in the CHC clinics at 4 disparate VA facilities (aim 1). HEP-TIDES will involve CHC and mental health providers working with an off-site depression care team comprised of a depression care nurse manager, pharmacist, and a psychiatrist. The purpose of the team will be to support CHC and mental health clinicians in delivering evidence-based stepped-care depression treatment. The adapted model will also take into account the substance use disorders among CHC patients. HEP-TIDES implementation will be assessed using a formative evaluation of the implementation process and a summative evaluation of a randomized controlled implementation trial of collaborative depression care in 242 patients (aims 2 and 3).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

309

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Arkansas
      • Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, 72205-5484
        • Central Arkansas VHS Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Ctr, Little Rock
    • California
      • West Los Angeles, California, United States, 90073
        • VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, CA
    • Missouri
      • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63106
        • St. Louis VA Medical Center John Cochran Division, St. Louis, MO
    • Texas
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
        • Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 99 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • confirmed untreated infection (positive HCV RNA test)
  • current PHQ-9 score of 10 or more
  • current treatment in the CHC clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

  • non-Veterans
  • patients who do not have access to a telephone
  • patients with current suicidal ideation
  • patients with significant cognitive impairment as indicated by a score > 10 on the Blessed Orientation Memory and Concentration Test
  • patients with a chart diagnosis of schizophrenia
  • patients with a chart diagnosis of bipolar disorder who have been hospitalized for a mental health condition within the last 12 months

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Arm 1: Depression Collaborative Care
Depression collaborative care: includes a stepped-care model. The 5 steps include symptom and self-management monitoring by a depression care manager (DCM) and the following: 1) watchful waiting, 2) treatment recommendations (counseling or pharmacotherapy), 3) pharmacotherapy recommended by a Clinical Pharmacist, 4) combination pharmacotherapy and specialty mental health counseling, and 5) referral to mental health. The DCM: provides education about depression and depression treatment options; assesses the patient's treatment preferences and barriers, and the patient's current depression severity and mental health comorbidity; initiates a patient self-management plan, and assess treatment adherence. The DCM uses standard alcohol screening and brief intervention. The DCM also screens for street drug use and recommends referral for to the local substance abuse treatment programs.
Other: Depression collaborative care model
The intervention will include a stepped-care model. The 5 steps include symptom and self-management monitoring by a depression care manager (DCM) and the following: 1) watchful waiting, 2) treatment recommendations (counseling or pharmacotherapy), 3) pharmacotherapy recommended by a Clinical Pharmacist, 4) combination pharmacotherapy and specialty mental health counseling, and 5) referral to mental health. The DCM: provides education about depression and depression treatment options; assesses the patient's treatment preferences and barriers, and the patient's current depression severity and mental health comorbidity; initiates a patient self-management plan, and assess treatment adherence. The DCM uses standard alcohol screening and brief intervention. The DCM also screens for street drug use and recommends referral for to the local substance abuse treatment programs.
No Intervention: Arm 2: Usual Care
Usual care will include depression screening with the same PHQ-9 screener used for Arm 1. The depression collaborative care team will not be a part of the usual care condition.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Patients Who Initiated Hepatitis C Antiviral Treatment Within 12 Months of Enrollment
Time Frame: 12 months
Antiviral treatment initiation was measured dichotomously by assigning a value of 1 if the patient received at least one prescription of interferon within 12 months of enrollment, and a value of 0 otherwise.
12 months
Depression Care: Treatment Response
Time Frame: Baseline and 12 months
Depression outcomes were assessed using the item mean score from the 20-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-20) collected at baseline and 12-months. The SLC-20 items are scored from 0 to 4 and averaged to provide a mean depression severity score ranging from 0 to 4. Depression treatment response was defined as a 50% or greater decrease in the mean SCL-20 score compared with baseline.
Baseline and 12 months
Depression Care: Depression Remission
Time Frame: Baseline and 12 months
Depression outcomes were assessed using the item mean score from the 20-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-20) collected at baseline and 12-months. The SLC-20 items are scored from 0 to 4 and averaged to provide a mean depression severity score ranging from 0 to 4. Remission was defined as an item mean SCL-20 score of less than 0.5.
Baseline and 12 months
Depression Care: Change From Baseline in Number of Depression Free Days (DFDs) at 12 Months
Time Frame: From Baseline to 12 months
The change in Depression Free Days was assessed using the item mean score from the 20-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-20) collected at baseline and 12-months. The SLC-20 items are scored from 0 to 4 and averaged to provide a mean depression severity score ranging from 0 to 4. Depression-free days (DFDs) were calculated using an SCL-20 score of less than 0.5 for depression-free and 2.0 or higher for fully symptomatic, and scores in between were assigned a linear proportional value.
From Baseline to 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of Hepatitis C Care: Quality Indicators: Proportion of QIs Received
Time Frame: 12 months
Quality of CHC Indicator Measure is based on a Delphi panel-derived list of quality indicators (QI) in CHC care. The list spans the following domains of care, i.e., CHC-specific function of care (diagnosis, specialty evaluation, treatment, etc); general function of care (diagnosis, treatment, follow-up); and mode of care (encounter, medication, immunization, counseling, etc). Adherence to a given QI is scored as 1 if there is evidence in the patient EMR for the indicator being satisfied. The quality of CHC care at the patient level is calculated by dividing the number of QIs for which that individual received the indicated care by the number of QIs for which the individual is eligible for during the length of time the patient is enrolled in the HEP-TIDES 12-month study timeframe.
12 months
Medication Adherence: Medication Possession Ratio
Time Frame: 12 months
Medication adherence was measured using the Medication Possession Ratio (MPR) calculation: Pharmacy refill data was used to calculate a medication possession ratio (MPR), by dividing the number of days supply of a medication received by the number of day's supply the patient needed to be able to take the medication continuously. An MPR closer to 1.0 indicates better adherence and has been associated with lower rates of hospital admission in veterans and greater symptom improvement.
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jeffrey M. Pyne, MD, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center, Little Rock, AR
  • Principal Investigator: Fasiha Kanwal, MBBS MD, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX
  • Principal Investigator: Brian Dieckgraefe, MD, St. Louis VA Medical Center John Cochran Division, St. Louis, MO
  • Principal Investigator: Matthew Goetz, MD, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 11, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 11, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

June 14, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 16, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 12, 2016

Last Verified

April 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SDP 10-044
  • 10-05 (VA Central IRB)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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