Telephone Administered Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Depression for Veterans in Rural Areas

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive-behavioral therapy (T-CBT) in treating major depression among veterans served by community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) in the Veteran's Integrated Service Network (VISN) 21, which serves rural areas in Northern California and (VISN) 12, which serves rural areas surrounding the Hines, IL VA Hospital.

More than 20% of patients in primary care have depressive disorders. While primary care is the principal venue for treatment for depression, fewer than 25% of depressed patients receive adequate treatment for their depression. These outcomes can be worse when there are barriers to treatment such as living in a rural area. Several studies have found that given a choice, about two-thirds of depressed primary care patients prefer psychotherapy or counseling over antidepressant medication. This is a controlled, randomized trial in which subjects meeting criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) from primary care settings in VISN 21 including CBOCs will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 1) a 16-session manualized telephone administered cognitive behavioral therapy (T-CBT) delivered over 20 weeks or 2) a treatment-as-usual (TAU) condition. Telephone-administered cognitive behavioral therapy (T-CBT) is an intervention aimed at improving coping skills and social functioning. It is divided into two phases: 1) an initial treatment phase consisting of 12 weekly sessions aimed at reducing symptoms of depression, and 2) a booster phase in which 4 sessions are provided at increasingly greater intervals to target maintenance of treatment gains. T-CBT, administered by doctoral level psychologists, will be compared to a treatment-as-usual (TAU) condition that controls for the natural course of depression during the course of treatment.