Stanley Xu, PhD

Phone: 303.636.3140
Email: Stan.Xu@kp.org

WICHE Rural Mental Health Research Center

Completed Projects - (1)

Identifying Stakeholders to Pay for Enhanced Depression Treatment in Rural Populations
The goal of this project is to identify stakeholders who economically benefit when rural patients receive enhanced depression treatment, which will, in turn, encourage health plans to provide enhanced depression treatment to their rural enrollees without raising premiums.
Research center: WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Topics: Healthcare financing, Mental and behavioral health

Assessment of the Mental Health Funding Marketplace in Urban vs. Rural Settings for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness (Findings Brief)
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 03/2010
This study was designed to assess the impact of rurality on the source of payment for mental health treatments and determine whether urban-rural differences in payment sources vary for the seriously mentally ill relative to all other mental health conditions.
Assessment of the Mental Health Funding Marketplace in Rural vs. Urban Settings (Working Paper)
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 02/2010
Rural residents are less likely to have mental health services funded through private insurance and more likely through public sources than urban residents, suggesting that targeting policies through public funding sources could be the most effective method to reduce urban-rural disparities in mental healthcare.

Differences in Prescribing Patterns of Psychotropic Medication for Children and Adolescents Between Rural and Urban Prescribers
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 10/2009
This study reports that prescriptions of all psychotropic drug categories increased for urban and rural populations during the 10-year study period. Urban youth were more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medications by psychiatrists. In contrast, rural youth were more likely to have psychotropics prescribed by generalists or other prescribers.
Rural-Urban Differences in Depression Care (Working Paper)
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 10/2009
This paper assesses the association between rurality and depression care. It reports that rural individuals are more reliant on pharmacotherapy than psychotherapy.
The Association Between Rural Residence and the Use, Type, and Quality of Depression Care
Policy Brief
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 05/2009
The purpose of the project was to assess the association between rurality and the use, type (pharmacotherapy versus psychotherapy), and quality of care among individuals in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey with self-reported depression.

Preventing Hospitalizations in Depressed Rural Primary Care Patients
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 05/2007
This study investigated the substitution of higher cost hospitalization for lower cost outpatient specialty care for depression and the extent to which insurance barriers impact service substitution patterns of outpatient specialty care for depression in rural and urban areas.

Differential Effectiveness of Depression Disease Management for Rural and Urban Primary Care Patients
Journal Article
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 09/2006
Is there a differential impact of enhanced depression care on patient outcomes in rural vs. urban primary care settings? Differences may be mediated by receiving evidence-based care (pharmacotherapy and specialty care counseling). Findings indicate that care for depression improved mental health for urban populations, but not rural patients.
Stakeholder Benefit From Depression Disease Management: Differences by Rurality?
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 2006
Despite increasing consensus about the value of depression disease management programs, the field has not identified which stakeholders should absorb the relatively small additional costs associated with these programs. This paper investigates whether two stakeholder groups economically benefit from improved depression.

Differential Effectiveness of Enhanced Depression Treatment for Rural and Urban Primary Care Patients
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Date: 09/2005
This paper explored whether a depression disease management program has a comparable impact on clinical outcomes over two years in patients treated in rural and urban primary care practices.

Assessment of the Mental Health Funding Marketplace in Urban vs. Rural Settings (Summary Brief)
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication show that rural individuals with mental health problems are significantly less likely to receive mental health services than individuals in urban and suburban areas.
The Association Between Rural Residence and the Use, Type, and Quality of Depression Care (Final Paper)
WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research
Rural individuals are more reliant on pharmacotherapy than psychotherapy, which may be a concern if this is due to poor access to psychotherapy rather than a preference for antidepressants.