M. Driessen et al., OUTPATIENT PSYCHOTHERAPY IN THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICIANS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS, PPmP. Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie, 46(3-4), 1996, pp. 90-95
This study tries to reveal the epidemiology of outpatient psychotherap
y in practices in a defined northern area of Germany (Schleswig-Holste
in, 2.66 Mill. inhabitants) by a postal questionning of all medical (n
= 242) and psychological (n = 45) psychotherapists registered. Psycho
therapy was defined as enclosing at least 10 meetings. 54.7% of the qu
estionnaires were returned to us. An analysis on this database showed
that 8310 adult patients were psychotherapeutically treated within one
year (0.3% of the population). On the base of different epidemiologic
al studies the treatment prevalence widely differed from 3.9 to 31.9%.
The majority of diagnoses were reactive disorders or neuroses (52.8%)
and psychosomatic disorders (24.3%). Patients out of middle and upper
social classes, with higher educational levels, and from urban areas
(> 100 000 inhabitants) were more likely to be treated than others. Th
is trend was significantly more apparent in psychologists than in phys
icians.