News: MDD among VHA outpatients potentially undertreated, study suggests

Most veterans receiving Veterans Health Administration (VHA) outpatient care for major depressive disorder (MDD) are receiving their recommended treatment. However, a growing proportion are not, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

Researchers studied how treatment selection changed over time among outpatients in the VHA. They examined VHA health records of veterans with at least two encounters with MDD diagnosis codes from fiscal years 2011 to 2025. The diagnosis codes include ICD-9-CM subcodes 296.20 to 296.36 and ICD-10-CM subcodes F32.0 through F32.5, F32.9, F33.0 to F33.42, and F33.9.

This led to a pool of 1.5 million veterans whose outpatient codes and prescription records were reviewed to see what forms of treatment they received. From 2011 to 2025, decreasing proportions of VHA outpatients received psychotherapy, antidepressants (AD), and combination therapy. Meanwhile, there were increasing proportions of veterans who received psychotherapy without ADs, ADs without psychotherapy, and those who received neither psychotherapy nor ADs.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that further investigation is needed into potential undertreatment of MDD among VHA outpatients.

Editor’s note: To read the full study, click here. To read additional coverage from JustCoding, click here.