Casting a wider net in behavioral health screening in primary care: a preliminary study of the Outcome Rating Scale

Introduction The integration of behavioral health services into primary care has led to enhanced use of brief screening measures to identify mental health problems. Although useful, such instruments are largely symptom based and diagnosis specific. This narrow focus can potentially limit the identif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Primary health care research & development 2017-03, Vol.18 (2), p.188-193
Main Authors: DeSantis, Brian, Jackson, Miranda J., Duncan, Barry L., Reese, Robert J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Drug abuse
Female
Humans
Internal medicine
Male
Mass Screening - methods
Medical screening
Medicine
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental health
Mental Health Services - organization & administration
Middle Aged
Patients
Primary care
Primary Health Care - organization & administration
Psychotherapy
Questionnaires
Short Report
Studies
Substance abuse treatment
Surveys and Questionnaires
Task forces
Validity
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Summary:Introduction The integration of behavioral health services into primary care has led to enhanced use of brief screening measures to identify mental health problems. Although useful, such instruments are largely symptom based and diagnosis specific. This narrow focus can potentially limit the identification of broader social or relational distress in patients that affect medical outcomes, as well as present feasibility challenges using a multi-measure approach in identifying mental health comorbidities. This exploratory study of adult primary care patients compared an ultra-brief, and widely used measure of global distress across life functioning, the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS), with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9 and PHQ-2). Correlations between the ORS and the PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 indicated agreement between the measures in classifying patients, and the ORS identified significantly more patients in the clinical range. Discussion Although results are preliminary, the ORS may cast a wider net in identifying patients with significant distress in primary care.
ISSN:1463-4236
1477-1128
DOI:10.1017/S1463423616000311