Long-term outcomes of Prompt Mental Health Care: A randomized controlled trial.

Prompt Mental Health Care (PMHC, Norwegian adaptation of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) is found successful in alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression. Here, we investigate whether improvement is maintained over time. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in two PMHC sites from November 2015 to August 2017, randomly assigning 681 adults with anxiety and/or mild to moderate depression (70:30 ratio: PMHC n = 463, TAU n = 218). Main outcomes were recovery rates and changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety from baseline to 12 months. Secondary outcomes were functional status, health-related quality of life, mental wellbeing and work participation. At 12 months after baseline the reliable recovery rate was 59.4% in PMHC and 36.6% in TAU, giving a between-group effect size of 0.51 (95%CI: 0.26, 0.77, p < 0.001). Differences in symptom change gave between-group effect sizes of -0.67 (95%CI: -0.99, -0.36, p < 0.001) for depression and -0.58 (95%CI: -0.91, -0.26, p < 0.001) for anxiety. PMHC was also at 12 months found more effective in improving functional status, health-related quality of life and mental wellbeing, but not work participation. In sum, substantial treatment effects of PMHC remain at 12 months follow-up, although results should be interpreted with caution due to risk of attrition bias.

Health complaints in late adolescence; Frequency, factor structure and the association with socio-economic status.

AIMS: Little is known about social disparities in health in late adolescence. Among boys and girls aged 17-19, we aimed to (1) describe frequency of health complaints, (2) investigate the factor structure of health complaints and (3) examine the association between health complaints and socio-economic status (SES). METHODS: Data from the large population-based youth@hordaland survey ( n=10,253) were used. Health complaints were assessed by five items from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Symptoms Checklist, SES by parental education and perceived family economy. Associations between health complaints and SES were investigated using analysis of variance, and the factor structure of health complaints using confirmatory factor analyses. RESULTS: At least one weekly complaint was reported by 47% of girls and 21% of boys. The items showed a good fit to a simple one-factor model when back pain and neck/shoulder pain were allowed to correlate. Health complaints were more frequent among adolescents reporting poor perceived family economy and lower parental education. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that health complaints are common in adolescence and might, as in adults, be part of everyday life. Health complaints are more frequent among adolescents from families with lower SES.