Effects of adding early cooperation and a work-place dialogue meeting to primary care management for sick-listed patients with stress-related disorders: CO-WORK-CARE-Stress - a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether intensified cooperation between general practitioner (GP), care manager and rehabilitation coordinator (RC) for patients sick-listed for stress-related mental disorder, combined with a person-centred dialogue meeting with employer, could reduce sick-leave days compared with usual care manager contact. DESIGN: Pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial, randomisation at primary care centre (PCC) level. SETTING: PCCs in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden, with care manager organisation. PARTICIPANTS: Of 30 invited PCCs, 28 (93%) accepted the invitation and recruited 258 patients newly sick-listed due to stress-related mental disorder (n = 142 intervention, n = 116 control PCCs). INTERVENTION: Cooperation between GP, care manager and rehabilitation coordinator from start of illness notification plus a person-centred dialogue meeting between patient and employer within 3 months. Regular contact with care manager was continued at the control PCCs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 12-months net and gross number of sick-leave days. Secondary outcomes: Symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety; work ability and health related quality of life (EQ-5D) over 12 months. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between intervention and control groups after 12 months: days on sick-leave (12-months net sick-leave days, intervention, mean = 110.7 days (95% confidence interval (CI) 82.6 - 138.8); control, mean = 99.1 days (95% CI 73.9 - 124.3)), stress, depression, or anxiety symptoms, work ability or EQ-5D. There were no significant differences between intervention and control groups concerning proportion on sick-leave after 3, 6, 12 months. At 3 months 64.8% were on sick-leave in intervention group vs 54.3% in control group; 6 months 38% vs 32.8%, and12 months 16.9% vs 15.5%. CONCLUSION: Increased cooperation at the PCC between GP, care manager and RC for stress-related mental disorder coupled with an early workplace contact in the form of a person-centred dialogue meeting does not reduce days of sick-leave or speed up rehabilitation.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03250026 https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03250026?tab=results#publicationsCO-WORK-CAREFirst Posted: August 15, 2017. Recruitment of PCCs: September 2017. Inclusion of patients from December 2017.

Examining the description of the concept "treatment as usual" for patients with depression, anxiety and stress-related mental disorders in primary health care research - A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: In randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within medical research, applied interventions are compared to treatment-as-usual (TAU) as the control condition. The aim of the current study was to examine how the concept of TAU is described when used as control condition in RCTs evaluating treatments for depression, anxiety syndromes, and stress-related mental disorders in primary care. METHOD: A systematic review of RCTs utilizing TAU as control group in the RCT in accordance with PRISMA standards was conducted. We used one multidisciplinary database (Scopus), one database focused on nursing (Cinahl), and one medical database (PubMed). The searches were conducted in November 2021 and May 2022. RESULTS: The included 32 studies comprised of 7803 participants. The content of TAU was classified as follows: 1) Basic descriptions of TAU lacking a detailed account as well as reference to local or national guidelines, 2) Moderate description of TAU including reference to national or local guidelines or a detailed description 3) Advanced description of TAU including references to national guidelines and a detailed description containing five key concepts: early assessment, accessibility, psychological treatment, medication, somatic examination. 18 studies had basic, 11 moderate, and 3 advanced descriptions of TAU. LIMITATIONS: The limitations were that only studies published in English were included. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides an assessment tool with three classification levels for TAU. The description of TAU is still insufficient in RCT studies conducted in primary care, which may affect the interpretation of results. In future research a detailed description of TAU is recommended.

Kinetic Generation of Whistler Waves in the Turbulent Magnetosheath.

The Earth's magnetosheath (MSH) is governed by numerous physical processes which shape the particle velocity distributions and contribute to the heating of the plasma. Among them are whistler waves which can interact with electrons. We investigate whistler waves detected in the quasi-parallel MSH by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. We find that the whistler waves occur even in regions that are predicted stable to wave growth by electron temperature anisotropy. Whistlers are observed in ion-scale magnetic minima and are associated with electrons having butterfly-shaped pitch-angle distributions. We investigate in detail one example and, with the support of modeling by the linear numerical dispersion solver Waves in Homogeneous, Anisotropic, Multicomponent Plasmas, we demonstrate that the butterfly distribution is unstable to the observed whistler waves. We conclude that the observed waves are generated locally. The result emphasizes the importance of considering complete 3D particle distribution functions, and not only the temperature anisotropy, when studying plasma wave instabilities.

Process evaluation of a cluster randomised intervention in Swedish primary care: using care managers in collaborative care to improve care quality for patients with depression.

BACKGROUND: The collaborative care model with a care manager has previously generated beneficial results for patients with depression in terms of decreased burden of depression symptoms. A care manager function has been tested in Sweden in the PRIM-CARE RCT with successful results. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the process of implementing care managers in collaborative care for patients with depression in Swedish primary health care in the PRIM-CARE RCT. METHODS: The study followed UK Medical Research Council guidance for process evaluation. Field notes from the implementation of the PRIM - CARE RCT were used, as well as data collected from five focus group discussions with General Practitioners (n = 29) and three focus group discussions with care managers (n = 11). Data were analysed with content analysis. RESULTS: Training sessions, careful preparation and extensive initial support to the care manager and staff at the Primary Care Centres were important ingredients in the implementation. The close access to facilitators, the recurrent peer support meetings, and the weekly newsletter strengthened the care manager function. CONCLUSIONS: A complex intervention adapted to the Swedish primary care context focusing on a care manager function for patients with depression could be performed through a stepwise implementation process. Financial support from the health care regions included in the study helped to reduce the impact of identified barriers. This process evaluation has revealed new and important knowledge for primary care development concerning infrastructure and organization building, knowledge sharing, and facilitating factors and barriers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02378272 Care Manager - Coordinating Care for Person Centered Management of Depression in Primary Care (PRIM - CARE). Registered March 4 2015. Retrospectively registered.

Budesonide inhaler device switch patterns in an asthma population in Swedish clinical practice (ASSURE).

BACKGROUND: Dry powder inhaler (DPI) device switch in asthma treatment could potentially increase with the entrance of new devices. We examined the switch patterns of budesonide (BUD) DPI analogues available in Sweden. METHODS: This observational real-life study linked primary healthcare medical records data from the Västra Götaland region to national Swedish registries, and included asthma patients (ICD-10-CM J45) prescribed BUD in a multidose DPI. Index date: first dispense of BUD DPI. Switch date: prescription of another BUD DPI device. Study outcomes (switch vs. non-switch) were exacerbations and prescription of short-acting ß2 -agonists. Study period was 1 July 2005 to 31 October 2013. RESULTS: Overall, 15,169 asthma patients were on treatment with BUD DPI; 1178 (7.35%) switched to another BUD DPI during the study. Pair-wise 1:1 matching of switchers vs. non-switchers resulted in two groups of 463 patients each (mean age 36 years, 55% female patients). A 25% higher exacerbation rate was seen postswitch (0.40 vs. 0.32; p = 0.047). Switchers were 4.5 year younger and had lower medication possession rate than non-switchers. Switch without primary healthcare visit did not differ between groups regarding consultations and exacerbations (no visit 4.96 and 0.90; visit 4.29 and 0.77, respectively). However, patients without primary healthcare visit at switch had significantly more outpatient hospital visits (2.01 vs. 0.81; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Considering the low switch rate, asthma patients and physicians in Swedish general practice seem reluctant to switch to another BUD DPI device. Switch, especially without primary healthcare visit, was associated with decreased asthma control resulting in higher exacerbation rate and more outpatient hospital visits.