Depression — Project Bridge: Peer Health Navigator Intervention
Citation(s)
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law Get it together. How to integrate physical and mental health care for people with serious mental disorders. Washington DC 2004.
Gelberg L, Andersen RM, Leake BD The Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations: application to medical care use and outcomes for homeless people. Health Serv Res. 2000 Feb;34(6):1273-302.
Parks J, Svendsen D, Singer P, Foti ME Morbidity and mortality in people with serious mental illness. Report from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. 2006.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of "The Bridge", a Peer Health Navigation Intervention
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.