Psychiatric screening in primary care: What do patients really want?

Psychiatric disorders are common in primary care, but underdiagnosed. U.S. physician reluctance to diagnose psychiatric illnesses is partly attributable to the belief that patients do not want their primary care physician to assess mental health. Six hundred one patients in a U.S. general internal m...

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Published inJournal of psychosomatic research Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 167 - 175
Main Authors Lish, Jennifer D., Kuzma, Mary Ann, Lush, David T., Plescia, Gary, Farber, Neil J., Zimmerman, Mark
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.02.1997
New York, NY Elsevier
Subjects
Adult
Aged
Attitude to Health
Attitude towards mental illness
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diagnosis
Female
Humans
Incidence
Male
Mass Screening
Medical sciences
Mental disorders
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental Disorders - epidemiology
Mental Disorders - psychology
Mental Health
Mental Illness
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Patient Satisfaction
Patients
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania - epidemiology
Personality Inventory
Physicians
Primary care
Primary Health Care
Primary Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Psychiatric disorders
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Screening
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Pennsylvania
Screening
Patient satisfaction
Mental disorders
Primary care
Human
Attitude
Primary health care
Satisfaction
Mental disorder
Patient
Medical screening
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Summary:Psychiatric disorders are common in primary care, but underdiagnosed. U.S. physician reluctance to diagnose psychiatric illnesses is partly attributable to the belief that patients do not want their primary care physician to assess mental health. Six hundred one patients in a U.S. general internal medicine practice completed the SCREENER, a self-report questionnaire which screens for 15 psychiatric disorders, and another questionnaire about the SCREENER. Patients were predominantly female, unmarried, black, high school graduates. Only 3% thought that their physician should never evaluate their mental health. More than 60% desired periodic mental health screening, and one third wanted psychiatric assessment only when a problem was suspected. Attitudes toward questionnaire screening were less positive than toward physician interview. Patients were more likely to want screening if they were female, unmarried, young, had a history of mental health treatment, reported psychiatric symptoms, or were in fair-poor subjective physical or mental health.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0022-3999
1879-1360
DOI:10.1016/S0022-3999(96)00235-8