Mental health questionnaires should be routine according to IU professor

A mental health professional can use the answers to these and other questions on the nine-question Patient Health Questionnaire to screen a patient for depression and continue to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.

Just as a doctor treating a patient for hypertension would take a patient’s blood pressure at the start of every appointment, a mental health professional should use what’s called measurement-based treatment, said Cara Lewis, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Indiana University's department of psychological and brain sciences.

Research has found that using a simple screening tool like the Patient Health Questionnaire at the start of each session reduces symptom worsening and highlights ongoing treatment goals. However, most community mental health clinics do not practice measurement-based treatment, Lewis said, possibly because of the additional work involved on the part of doctors and therapists, or the stigma attached to mental health diagnoses.

“It’s unfair we realize things like high blood pressure are so important and sneaky and measure them every time we go to a health professional, and we don’t do same with depression, even though depression is as common and can be lethal,” Lewis said. “The same opportunities are there. I think stigma could be one of biggest culprits and why we don’t see depression measurements waiting at the doctor’s office.”

Over the next three years, Lewis will be studying how community health clinics can successfully implement the use of measurement-based treatment with two grants totaling nearly $3 million from the National Institutes of Health.