Despite the development of effective treatments, depression is still ranked as one of the top ten causes of disability worldwide according to the World Health Organization. It often takes years if not decades to translate evidence-based depression treatments into nonacademic, community-based practices. This research-to-practice gap can lead to millions of dollars of funded research being wasted when the treatments themselves never reach the populations in need. Without a clear strategy to foster implementation and acceptance at the community provider level, a “voltage drop” is experienced when an evidence-based depression treatment developed in tightly controlled academic settings is then introduced into real-world settings. Moreover, current clinical trials populations are still highly selective (<5% of the diagnosed population) despite the movement toward “community-based research.” There is little understanding of the mechanisms of depression treatment models, notably psychosocial programs, and limited generalizability of current participant populations to inform the next generation of patient-centered depression research. Subsequently, there is a need for further cross-disciplinary research on effective processes to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based treatments in real-world practices.

Publications addressing one or more of the following topics related to this theme are desired, including, but are not limited to:

• Challenges and opportunities in implementing depression treatment in real-world practices
• Depression and cooccurring conditions: impact on treatment and implementation
• The role of academic-community partnerships in facilitating implementation of effective depression treatments
• Information technologies and measurement-based care strategies to facilitate the uptake of effective depression treatments
• Patient-centered approaches and adapting depression treatment to underserved populations
• Organizational and financial incentives to facilitate the implementation of effective depression treatments

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