Psychopharmacology Plus Psychotherapy for Depression Treatment

In Reply: We agree with Dr. Mark about the importance of the patient's perspective. However, we do not agree that our study focused "solely on pharmacotherapy." As we pointed out in the introduction, recent reviews of the evidence suggest that antidepressants and evidence-based psychotherapies are equally effective for major depression (1,2). The two studies in which we asked the willingness-to-pay questions tested collaborative care models for depression that included both pharmacologic and psychosocial treatment components (3,4). Our willingness-to-pay question did not focus solely on pharmacotherapy but asked study participants a "neutral" question about how much they would be willing to pay for a six-month course of depression treatment without implying that such treatment should involve pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy.