INTEGRATING PSYCHIATRY INTO PRIMARY-CARE - AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL

General practitioners (GPs) working in a busy primary care setting att ached to a teaching hosptial were exposed to patient-centred feedback teaching in which symptoms elicited by the general practitioner (GP) a nd an interview schedule in the index patient were used as a focus for instruction. Each of the seven GPs who completed the study had an ave rage of 52 validated exposures spread over 3 months. Three of them bec ame much better at detecting psychiatric disorders, two showed no noti ceable improvement and two showed some deterioration. The personality and disposition of the GPs, rather than their years of experience, det ermined their response to the training programme. The implications of the findings is highlighted.