Specific content for collaborative care: a systematic review of collaborative care interventions for patients with multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety in primary care

Background In primary care (PC) many patients suffer from multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety. Collaborative care (CC) has shown promising results for patients with depression, anxiety, and multimorbidity involving depression. However, specific content in CC for patients with multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety is unknown. Objective (i) To examine the effect of CC interventions in patients with multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety compared with usual care; (ii) to identify specific content of CC. Methods We conducted a systematic literature review of randomized controlled trial studies evaluating CC models for adults with multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety in PC settings. PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PsycInfo were searched in December 2019. We conducted a qualitative synthesis using an existing framework and developed a new framework to map the content for each studied intervention. Results We identified 1,447 studies. Twelve publications were included. Eleven had medium-to-high quality of CC for patients with multimorbidity involving depression. Specific content of CC in these studies is: A stepped care model, involving medication and psychotherapy delivered by a nurse or psychologist Care Manager (CM) focusing on problem-solving techniques; follow-up including monitoring of symptoms and function, and relapse prevention strategies; scheduled CM supervision. Conclusions Specific content for CC for patients with multimorbidity involving depression is identified from current research. Research gaps were found regarding CC for patients with multimorbidity and anxiety, depression and anxiety, and depression and/or anxiety and more than 2 diseases. Lay Summary Most patients in primary care have multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases. Depression and/or anxiety are common in this population. Collaborative care (CC) can improve symptoms for patients with multimorbidity involving depression. In CC, a Care Manager (CM) establishes a care plan with the patient, cooperates with the patient's physician, and has scheduled patient follow-ups. However, CC can differ in design and content. The focus of this systematic review and qualitative synthesis was to examine effectiveness of CC for patients suffering from multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety and identify specific content of CC for patients with multimorbidity involving depression and/or anxiety. We identified specific content of CC for patients with multimorbidity involving depression in medium-to-high-quality studies with positive effect: CM (nurse or psychologist) collaborating with the patient's physician in a stepped care model involving both medication and/or CM-delivered problem-solving psychological treatment; scheduled patient follow-ups with symptom and function monitoring, medication adherence and relapse prevention; regular CM supervision. No conclusions can be drawn regarding the effectiveness of CC in patients with multimorbidity involving anxiety, depression and anxiety, or depression and/or anxiety and more than 2 diseases.