Muntingh ADT, et al. – A literature search was performed to estimate the impact of collaborative care for adult patients with anxiety disorders in primary care. The authors suggested that collaborative care appears to be a promising strategy for improving primary care for anxiety disorders, in particular, panic disorder. However, the number of studies is still inadequate and further research is required to assess the effectiveness in other anxiety disorders.

Methods

• For the purpose of this study, the authors searched PubMed, Psycinfo, Embase, Cinahl, and the Cochrane library. 
• Randomized controlled trials investigating the impacts of collaborative care for adult primary care patients with an anxiety disorder, compared to care as usual or another intervention. 
• Standardized mean differences (SMD) on an anxiety scale closest to 12 months follow-up were calculated and pooled in a random effects meta-analysis.

Results

• Of the three thousand seventy three studies found, 7 studies were incorporated with an aggregate of 2105 members.
• Included investigations were of moderate to high quality.
• Findings revealed that collaborative care was superior to care as usual, with a small effect size (SMD = 0.35 95 % CI 0.14–0.56) for all anxiety disorders combined and a moderate effect size (SMD = 0.59, 95 % CI 0.41–0.78) in a subgroup analysis (five studies) on patients with panic disorder.