Inadequate follow-up care for depression and its impact on antidepressant treatment duration among veterans with and without diabetes mellitus in the Veterans Health Administration

Our objective was to describe the adequacy of follow-up care for depression and its association with antidepressant treatment duration among veterans with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). This was a retrospective study (1997–2005) of 2178 veterans (33% with DM) in a Midwestern Veterans Health Administration facility who had a new episode of unipolar depression. Adequate follow-up care was defined by a health care visit within 7 and 14 days, and ≥3 visits following antidepressant treatment initiation. Adequate treatment duration was defined by a medication possession ratio of ≥80%. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for demographic, clinical and health care utilization characteristics. Only 27% received ≥3 follow-up visits within 12 weeks, and