A comprehensive review of published Markov models in depression and identified potential …

• Abstract
• Background
• Key clinical features of unipolar depression
• Application
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Figures

Biology Articles » Psychobiology » Can discrete event simulation be of use in modelling major depression? » Conclusion

Conclusion

- Can discrete event simulation be of use in modelling major depression?

V. Conclusion

When considering the practical examples previously presented, discrete event simulation appears to be complementary and appropriate modelling method when applied to depression. Although discrete event simulation has a quite long history in industrial operational research [49-51], it is still not widely used in the assessment of the value of healthcare interventions. DES could provide a comprehensive tool to illustrate the course of depression, thus allowing greater flexibility in depicting the cost-effectiveness of prevention interventions for recurrent depression. In general, the greatest advantages DES has to offer are that it allows the analyst to model more complex and dynamic systems compared with other types of modelling and that it permits experiments that might not otherwise be feasible ("what if?" scenarios) and may provide additional support for expected value of information (EVPI) analyses. The greater flexibility of DES also enables the model to capture more details about the uncertainty in the system being modelled.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge John Cochran for his editorial assistance.