Helping Doctors Climb Family Depression Tree

Families for Depression Awareness has developed an online tool to help doctors take a quick inventory of a family history of depression. The tool, called the Mental Health Family Tree, speeds the process for doctors and helps them make better treatment decisions for patients. It is available for free at the organization's website.

The Mental Health Family Tree, according to the group, "is a brief online patient questionnaire that enables clinicians to easily obtain a comprehensive patient and family history in order to uncover patterns that may be associated with depression and bipolar disorder."

Family doctors are often pressed for time, so anything that speeds their ability to recognize and diagnose serious mental illness is a big help. A doctor can ask a patient to complete the simple online questionnaire and bring the results to the appointment. For patients who are not computer-minded, the questionnaire can be printed out for them to take home and fill out. All information entered into the tool is secure and anonymous.

“This tool is great for patients to complete before an appointment,” said Eric Youngstrom, a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who does research using family history questionnaires and helped the group devise the tool. “It primes patients to find out what their family history is and learn that their illness is medically based, not due to a character flaw."

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 60 percent of those with bipolar disorder have at least one close relative with the condition or with major depression. A family history helps a doctor see mood disorder patterns and sift out which disorder a patient might have.

“Several studies have shown that compiling a more thorough family history can quadruple the number of mood disorders that clinicians diagnose," said Julie Totten, FFDA president and founder, in a statement about the tool.

The tool can be found here and was developed with support from AstraZeneca.

Image courtesy of kevindooley, via Flickr