The unrestricted, three-year gift from the Lilly Foundation is the largest ever given to a U-M program by the foundation, the nonprofit philanthropic arm of Eli Lilly and Company.
"With this gift, we will be better able to reach out to patients and their families in primary care and community settings, find ways to help improve patients' adherence to treatment, and share the U-M Depression Center model with other institutions across the country," says John Greden, M.D., executive director of the U-M Depression Center and Rachel Upjohn Professor and chair of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. "We're tremendously grateful to the foundation for sharing and supporting our vision of improving depression care for everyone."
"The U-M Depression Center uses a more complete approach to recognizing and treating all the symptoms of depression -- aches and pains as well as the more easily identifiable symptoms of depression such as sadness, insomnia and appetite changes -- providing the best opportunity for people to get better," says Paula Trzepacz, MD, Medical Director of Eli Lilly and Company US Neurosciences.
She continues, "The University of Michigan has taken a bold step in naming their center specifically for a condition which still carries social stigma in the minds of many people. We at Lilly are proud to support the U-M Depression Center, the model program for establishing a national network of state-of-the-art depression centers. Their novel approach enables more doctors to more effectively reach the millions of Americans who suffer from depression each year."
The U-M Depression Center, part of the U-M Health System, was founded in 2001 as the nation's first comprehensive depression center combining research, treatment and education.
The new gift will expand the University's already strong relationship with both the Lilly Foundation and the company, which supports research and education programs in many areas of the University, including pharmacy, business, chemistry and engineering. Besides philanthropic support, other interactions include recruiting, research, and service on advisory boards.
With the Lilly gift, the U-M Depression Center will expand outreach activities aimed at helping primary care physicians select and carry out treatment strategies for people with depression; giving patients an automated phone-based system for reporting their day-to-day response to treatment, thereby saving time, travel and effort; and coordinating care for patients through trained specialists called Care Navigators.
"Primary care and community approaches to depression are crucial to overcoming the under-diagnosis and under-treatment of all forms of depression," says Greden. In an effort to help mental health care providers understand and manage depression in their patients, the U-M Depression Center has developed programs that streamline treatment selection, patient tracking and management of medication side effects and interactions.
The gift will also allow Depression Center researchers to develop and share strategies for improving the rate at which depression patients adhere to their treatment regimens. "Adherence is key to the success of treatment, whether it's medication, talk therapy or a combination of both," says Greden.
In addition, the gift will help the U-M develop alliances that may eventually lead to a national network of depression centers. Says Greden, "Our vision is to emulate the wonderfully successful precedents established by the national networks of cancer centers and heart centers. This gift will allow us to accelerate the already emerging alliance of partners to promote and catalyze such a network in depression."
For more information on the U-M Depression Center, visit www.med.umich.edu/depression/