THE ECONOMICS OF DEPRESSION IN PRIMARY-CARE - DEPARTMENT-OF-HEALTH INITIATIVES

Background. Most mental illness is treated in primary and not secondar y care settings, with depression and anxiety the commonest conditions encountered. Method. The paper describes on-going Department of Health initiatives to optimise the primary care of common mental illnesses s uch as depression. Discussion. Primary care attenders with depression are often higher consumers of general health care than non-depressed a ttenders. Further data will become available soon from these ongoing s tudies to inform the debate on the optimal use of available resources in primary care. There is a particular need to evaluate non-pharmacolo gical interventions in primary care.