Implications for practice and research

• Telephone-based stepped collaborative care yields lasting improvements in anxiety and mood for primary care patients with generalised anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder.

• Research is needed to determine which collaborative care intervention components are most beneficial to which subgroups of patients.

Context

Collaborative care (CC) or care management involves longitudinal monitoring plus pharmacological and/or behavioural interventions based on evidence-based, stepped care treatment protocols.1 CC is delivered by a care manager (often a registered nurse) working in close collaboration with a primary care provider (PCP) and mental health specialist (often a psychiatrist). Whereas CC for depression in primary care has strong empirical support, CC for anxiety has not been studied extensively.1 CC interventions for anxiety would help address the high …