Phone monitoring can reduces anxiety symptoms

A study in the US has found that patients with anxiety and panic disorders who are monitored, supported and given regular information by clinicians over the phone have better health outcomes.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recruited 191 adults with anxiety and depression in both urban and rural areas. Half of them were given telephone-based intervention, which consisted of education about their disorders and discussion about how they were being treated.

Bruce L. Rollman, associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and lead author of the research said: "We found that having non-mental health specialty care managers provide patients with information and support over the phone in collaboration with patients’ primary care physicians was indeed a very effective way of improving patients’ symptoms, quality of life and patterns of employment."

Patients were called on average every month for a year, and when surveyed at the end of the trial were more likely than those without telephone intervention to report a decline in their symptoms and greater productivity at work. 

All information taken from patients by phone about their symptoms and treatment preferences was relayed back to their GPs in an electronic medical record.

"There has been a surge of interest in treating anxiety disorders and depression in the primary care setting, but we had few time-efficient and cost-effective ways to treat these disorders," explained Rolliman.

The research is published in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.