A paper published by the Department of Health Care Management and Policy at the University of Surrey in 2011. [1]
This study looked at the impact of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), a programme designed to reduce disease burden to the individual and economic burden to the society of common mental health problems (CMHP).on health service utilisation and sickness absence using routine data. People with CMHP used more health resources than those without CMHP: more prescriptions of antidepressants 5.25 (95% CI 5.38 to 5.13), inpatient episodes 4.89 (95% CI 5.0 to 4.79), occupied bed days 1.25 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.55), outpatient 1.5 (95% CI 1.40 to 1.63) and emergency department attendances 0.34 (95% CI 0.31 to 0.37), and medical certificates 0.29 (95% CI 0.26 to 0.32). IAPT was associated with reduced use of emergency department attendances (mean difference: 0.12 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.19, p<0.001)). However, the number of prescriptions of antidepressants increased mean difference -0.15 (95% CI 0.02-0.29, p=0.028).
1 de Lusignan S, Chan T, Parry G, et al. Referral to a new psychological therapy service is associated with reduced utilisation of healthcare and sickness absence by people with common mental health problems: A before and after comparison. J Epidemiol Community Health 2012;66:1–6. doi:10.1136/jech.2011.139873
