Depression treatment and short-term healthcare expenditures among elderly Medicare beneficiaries with chronic physical conditions

Table 2 Weighted average expenditures and standard deviations by type of depression treatment and gender, medicare current beneficiary survey, 2000-2005 ^a

Expenditures	Antidepressants only			Psych Tx (with or w/o AD)			No treatment
	Mean $	SD $	*p-value*	Mean $	SD $	*p-value*	Mean $	SD $
Total	17,425	18,038.4	0.296	19,733	18,448.7	0.005	16,795	17,956.7
Inpatient	5,186	9,514.8	0.471	5,142	9,510.3	0.604	5,473	9,546.1
Outpatient	1,764	3,459.4	0.229	1,653	3,449.8	0.859	1,617	3,447.1
Medical provider	4,767	4,854.4	< 0.001	5,839	5,130.9	< 0.001	4,295	4,774.9
Prescription drugs	2,848	1,911.0	< 0.001	3,076	2,001.2	< 0.001	1,829	1,689.9
Other	2,530	9,510.6	< 0.001	3,656	9,498.9	0.352	3,330	9,493.8

Note: Based on 1,055 elderly community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older, and followed for one year during 2001 through 2005. Expenditures were measured in the follow-up year and depression treatment was measured in year 1. p-values can be used to identify statistically differences in expenditures by depression treatment compared to no depression treatment based on t-tests.
^aDue to small number of individuals who received only psychotherapy but no antidepressant treatment, we combined people having psychotherapy with and without antidepressant treatment into one group.
p: p-value; SD: Standard Deviation; Tx: Treatment; AD: Antidepressants; Psych Tx (with or w/o AD): Psychotherapy with or without antidepressants.

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