Speedy access to talking therapies needed for anxiety and depression

Speedy access to talking therapies needed for anxiety and depression

By Liz Lockhart

A reduction in the number of sick notes issued to people who are suffering from anxiety and depression would appear to be due to the Government’s flagship mental health programme, according to a new study published in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Professor Simon de Lusignan of the University of Surrey led researchers to find that people referred to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) also attended A&E less, six month after beginning therapy, than those who are not accessing the service.

Launched in 2006, the IAPT programme has ambitious aims to get people who are suffering from mental ill-health back into the workforce by ensuring quick access to talking therapies which include cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).

This study supports continued funding for this flagship mental health programme.

The study suggests that people with common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression receive nearly ten times more sick notes and use hospital services more than other adult patients.  

The number of prescription for antidepressant for patients referred to IAPT was higher after the intervention than before, the researchers found.  They suggest that this may be because people receiving talking therapies are more likely to adhere to treatment or because they are suffering from a more severe problem by the time they access IAPT.

Whilst around 20 per cent of people suffer from a common mental health disorders at some point in their life, professor de Lusignan’s study found that just 6.3 per cent of people affected by anxiety or depression were accessing IAPT.

"The findings of this study would support a decision to increase expenditure on the IAPT programme, despite cuts or no growth elsewhere in the health system," conclude the authors.