Interventions promoting recovery from depression for patients transitioning from outpatient mental health services to primary care: Protocol for a scoping review

Anne Sofie Aggestrup; Frederik Martiny; Maria Faurholt-Jepsen; Morten Hvenegaard; Robin Christensen; Annette Sofie Davidsen; Klaus Martiny

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0291559

Interventions promoting recovery from depression for patients transitioning from outpatient mental health services to primary care: Protocol for a scoping review

PLoS One. 2023 Sep 15;18(9):e0291559. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291559. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Anne Sofie Aggestrup¹, Frederik Martiny^{2

3}, Maria Faurholt-Jepsen⁴, Morten Hvenegaard⁵, Robin Christensen⁶, Annette Sofie Davidsen², Klaus Martiny¹

Affiliations

¹ Copenhagen Affective Disorder Research Centre (CADIC), New Interventions in Depression (NID) Group, Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
² The Research Unit for and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
³ Center for Social Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ Copenhagen Affective Disorder Research Centre (CADIC), Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁵ Competence Centre for Rehabilitation and Recovery, Mental Health Centre Ballerup, Ballerup, Denmark.
⁶ Section for Biostatistics and Evidence-Based Research, The Parker Institute, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital & Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense University Hospital, Denmark.

Abstract

Introduction: Patients with severe Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) have an increasing risk of new psychiatric hospitalizations following each new episode of depression highlighting the recurrent nature of the disorder. Furthermore, patients are not fully recovered at the end of their treatment in outpatient mental health services, and residual symptoms of depression might explain why patients with MDD have a high risk of relapse. However, evidence of methods to promote recovery after discharge from outpatient mental health services is lacking. The proposed scoping review aims to systematically scope, map and identify the evidence and knowledge gaps on interventions that aims to promote recovery from MDD for patients transitioning from outpatient mental health services to primary care.

Materials and methods: The proposed scoping review will follow the latest methodological guidance by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) in tandem with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis-extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. The review is ongoing. Four electronic databases (Medline via PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Sociological Abstracts) were systematically searched from 20 January 2022 till 29 March 2022 using keywords and text words. The review team consists of three independent screeners. Two screeners have completed the initial title and abstract screening for all studies retrieved by the search strategy. Currently, we are in the full text screening phase. Reference lists of included studies will be screened, and data will be independently extracted by the review team. Results will be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Discussion: The chosen methodology is based on the use of publicly available information and does not require ethical approval. Results will be published in an international peer reviewed scientific journal, at national and international conferences and shared with relevant authorities.

Registration: A pre-print has been registered at the medRxiv preprint server for health sciences (doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.06.22280499).

Copyright: © 2023 Aggestrup et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Depression
Depressive Disorder, Major* / therapy
Humans
Mental Health Services*
Outpatients
Primary Health Care
Review Literature as Topic
Systematic Reviews as Topic

Grants and funding

This scoping review was funded by Helsefonden (21-B-0478), Jascha Fonden (2021-0082) and the Intersectoral Fund for Health Research (Tværspuljen) in the Capital Region of Denmark (P-2022-1-08). The funding source supports the first authors salary to carry out this review. The funders will not be involved in the study design, data collection, writing the manuscript, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.