Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Difficulty of Making Psychology Research and Clinical Practice Relevant to Medicine: Experiences and Observations

  • Published:
Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Psychology and medicine research and practice have demonstrated substantial and unique bodies of knowledge designed to both improve patient care and respond to contemporary health care needs for use of evidence and cost consciousness. At their full potential they represent a significant paradigm shift in healthcare. Despite impressive successes, it is clear that we are just on the cusp of such a change. These findings have had limited impact and penetration into medical practice, particularly outside of academic medicine and large, organized systems of health care, and there are multiple examples of such limitations in various arenas of health care. There also appear to be common themes to such examples which provide us opportunities to consider how psychologists might move things ahead. They also suggest how our unique position in academic medicine can both limit our impact and provide ways of creating continued shifts in the healthcare paradigm.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, L. A., Escobar, J. I., Lehrer, P. M., Gara, M. A., & Woolfolk, R. L. (2002). Psychosocial treatments for multiple unexplained physical symptoms: A review of the literature. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 939–950.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, R. J., Freedland, K. E., Clouse, R. E., & Lustman, P. J. (2001). The prevalence of co morbid depression in adults with diabetes: A meta analysis. Diabetes Care, 24, 1069–1078.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brazeau, C., Rovi, S., Yick, C., & Johnson, M. (2005). Collaboration between mental health professionals and family physicians: A survey of New Jersey family physicians. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 7, 12–14.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • deGroot, M., Anderson, R., Freeland, K. E., Clouse, R. E., & Lustman, P. J. (2001). Association of depression and diabetes complications: A meta analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 63, 619–630.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dilts, S. L., Mann, N., & Dilts, J. G. (2003). Accuracy of referring psychiatric diagnosis on a consultation liaison service. Psychosomatics, 44, 407–411.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. G., Huskamp, H. A., & Pincus, H. A. (2003). Aligning incentives in the treatment of depression in primary care with evidence-based practice. Psychiatric Services, 54, 682–687.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Groopman, J. (2007). How doctors think. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedrick, S. C., Chaney, E. F., Felker, B., Liu, C. F., Hasenberg, N., Heagerty, P., et al. (2003). Effectiveness of collaborative care depression treatment in Veterans Affairs primary care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 18, 9–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hunsley, J., & Lee, C. (2007). Research informed benchmarks for psychological treatments: Efficacy studies, effectiveness studies and beyond. Professional Psychology Research and Practice, 38, 21–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irving, R. R., Mills, J. L., Choo-Kang, E. G., Morrison, E. Y., Wright-Pasco, A. W., McLaughlin, W. A., et al. (2007). Depressive symptoms in children of women with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 9, 21–24.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, N., & the Future of Family Medicine Project Leadership Committee. (2004). The future of family medicine: A collaborative project of the family medicine community. Annals of Family Medicine, 2, S3–S32.

  • Katon, W., Roy-Byrne, P., Russo, J., & Cowley, D. (2002). Cost-effectiveness and cost offset of a collaborative care intervention for primary care patients with panic disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 1098–1004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Katon, W., Rutter, C., Simon, G., Lin, E. H., Ludman, E. J., Ciechanowsk, I. P., Kinder, L., et al. (2005). The association of comorbid depression with mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care, 28, 2668–2672.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Katon, W., & Unutzer, J. (2006). Collaborative care models for depression: Time to move from evidence to practice. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166, 2304–2306.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. (2005). Treating psychological problems in medical settings: Primary care as the de facto mental health system and the role of hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 53, 290–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. (2007). Why we love collaborative care. Paper presented at the Collaborative Family Health Association, Ashville, North Carolina.

  • Kessler, R., & Stafford, D. (2008). Primary care is the defacto mental health system. In R. Kessler & D. Stafford (Eds.), Collaborative medicine case studies: Evidence in practice (pp. 9–24). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinder, L. S., Katon, W. J., Ludman, E., Russo, J., Simon, G., Lin, E. H., et al. (2006). Improving depression care in patients with diabetes and multiple complications. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, 1036–1041.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, J., Peek, C. J., Heinrich, R. L., Bischoff, R. J., & Scherger, J. (2002). Mental health professionals in medical settings: A primer. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piette, J. D., Richardson, C., & Valenstein, M. (2004). Addressing the needs of patients with multiple chronic illnesses: The case of diabetes and depression. American Journal of Managed Care, 10, 152–162.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pinhas-Hamiel, O., Standiford, D., Hamiel, D., Dolan, L., Cohen, R., & Zeitler, P. (1999). The type 2 family: A setting for the development and treatment for adolescent type 2 diabetes mellitus. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 153, 1063–1067.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Raine, R., Haines, A., Sensky, T., Hutchings, A., Larkin, K., & Black, N. (2002). Systematic review of mental health interventions for patients with common somatic symptoms: Can research evidence from secondary care be extrapolated to primary care? British Medical Journal, 325, 1082–1093.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Regier, D., Narrow, W., Rae, D., Manderscheid, R., Locke, B., & Goodwin, F. (1993). The de facto U.S. mental and addictive services system: Epedimiologic catchment area prospective 1-year prevalence rates of disorders and services. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 85–94.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rost, K., Pyne, J. M., Dickenson, L. M., & LoSasso, A. T. (2005). Cost-effectiveness of enhancing primary care depression management on an ongoing basis. Annals of Family Medicine, 3, 7–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shadish, W., Matt, G., Navarro, A., Siegle, G., Crits-Cristoph, P., Hazelrigg, M., et al. (1997). Evidence that therapy works in clinically representative conditions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 355–365.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, G. E., Katon, W. J., Lin, E. H., Ludman, E. J., Von Korff, M., Ciechanowski, P., et al. (2005). Diabetes complications and depression as predictors of health services costs. General Hospital Psychiatry, 27, 344–351.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, G. E., Katon, W. J., Lin, E. H., Rutter, C., Manning, W. G., Von Korff, M., et al. (2007). Cost-effectiveness of systematic depression treatment among people with diabetes mellitus. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 65–72.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spitzer, R., Williams, J., Kroenke, K., Linzer, M., deGruy, F., Hahn, S., et al. (1994). Utility of a new procedure for diagnosing mental disorders in primary care. The PRIME-MD 1000 study. Journal of the American Medical Association, 122, 1749–1756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strosahl, K. (2007). Primary care behavioral health integration: Where do we go from here? Paper Presented at the Collaborative Healthcare: Putting it Together Conference, Ashville, North Carolina.

  • U.S. Preventative Services Task Force. (2002). Screening for depression: Recommendations and rationale. Annals of Internal Medicine, 136, 765–776.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, E. H., Austin, B. T., Davis, C., Hindmarsh, M., Schaefer, J., & Bonomi, A. (2001). Improving chronic care: Translating evidence into action. Health Affairs, 20, 64–78.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

Much Thanks to C.J. Peek Ph.D. for his extensive assistance in clarifying ideas in this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vermont College of Medicine, Berlin Family Health, Fletcher Allen Health Care, 130 Fisher Road Suite 3-1, Montpelier, VT, 05602, USA

    Rodger Kessler

Authors
  1. Rodger Kessler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rodger Kessler.

Additional information

This paper is based in part on the author’s presentation at the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers 3rd National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2007.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kessler, R. The Difficulty of Making Psychology Research and Clinical Practice Relevant to Medicine: Experiences and Observations. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 15, 65–72 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-008-9096-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-008-9096-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation