General practitioner psychological management of common emotional problems(I): definitions and literature review

General practitioners' (GPs') treatment of patients with common emotional p roblems often includes some form of psychological management within the con sultation. Such psychological management may be limited to listening and di scussion or may also include more specific psychological approaches, such a s use of counselling, problem-solving, or cognitive-behavioural techniques. This paper defines GP psychological management and reviews what is known a bout its frequency and effectiveness. MEDLINE and PsychLIT searches were un dertaken of empirical studies of the psychological management of emotional problems by GPs in routine consultations published up to 1998. Thirty-six s tudies were identified. Most lacked details of the nature of the psychologi cal management reported, making it difficult to compare studies. The freque ncy of use of psychological management by GPs was found to be generally les s when rated by external observers than when assessed by GP self-report. Th ere is preliminary evidence from a few studies of the clinical effectivenes s of GP psychological management in routine consultations.