Behavioral Health Matters - Chronic and Relapsing Patients continued...
[Drug Benefit Trends 12(11):2BH-3BH, 2000. © 2000 Cliggott Publishing Co., Division of SCP/Cliggott Communications, Inc.]

Conclusion I could go on with much more evidence from the literature, but the point is already clear; managed behavioral health's short-term treatment model is not suitable for the great number of patients with chronic or relapsing disorders. Something akin to the new disease management protocols for diabetes, hypertension, and asthma is needed in behavioral health. It is sad and ironic that just as the rest of medicine has discovered that an organized approach to chronic illness is cost-effective and provides better results, behavioral health has gone the other way. I am not alone in my concerns about exclusive reliance on short-term approaches to behavioral health care. Steven S. Scharfstein, MD, president and medical director of Sheppard Pratt Health System, states: "Although short-term approaches are appropriate for many patients, others with serious and persistent mental illness who are the greatest burden for families and society are ill-served by such an approach. As in prior eras of economies of scale -- those of large asylums and then of deinstitutionalization -- the current era of private and public managed care is at risk ethically if it focuses primarily on cost reductions and the effectiveness of short-term approaches for acute illness. Many people suffer at a time when effective care is at hand."[8]		Section 4 of 4 CONTENTS Introduction Panic Disorder Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Conclusion References