Depression is common in patients with coronary heart disease and associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality. Treating depressive symptoms appears to improve depressive symptoms and quality of life. Despite expert recommendations to screen and treat depressive symptoms fewer coronary heart disease patients engage in depression treatment than the general population, perhaps due to 1) sub-optimal provider awareness and referral rates and 2) low self-efficacy, stigma and misattribution of depressive symptoms among coronary heart disease patients. In addition, few real world theory-informed implementation trials exist for improving screening and treatment in outpatient settings.
The specific aim is to determine whether an electronic shared decision making (eSDM) and behavioral activation tool improves depressive symptoms and treatment initiation in coronary heart disease patients with elevated depressive symptoms. To accomplish these aims, a hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial will be conducted using a pre-post design across socioeconomically diverse cardiology and primary care clinics.
