Psychosocial competence of general practitioners and care of patients withmental disorders - A questionnaire study

Objective: Given the frequency of patients with psychosocial problems and m ental disorders in primary care our study focusses on the relationship betw een the psychosocial qualifications of general practitioners and their mana gement of these patients. Method: A questionnaire was sent to all general practitioners in Hessen ask ing for sociodemographic and profession-related data as well as their psych osocial competence and their procedure during a regular day in practice. Ba sed on 396 questionnaires we compared five groups of general practitioners with different psychosocial qualifications, proportionate incidence of diag noses, medical procedures and referrals to specialists and hospitals. Results: The average age of the participants of our study is 45 years; they have been working for 14 years. 163 general practitioners without and 59 w ith a special interest in psychosocial qualification and 174 psychosocially qualified physicians participated in the study. Of a total of 65 patients seen during the reference day 18 were diagnosed as suffering from mental di sorders. Their number increased with greater psychosocial competence of the physicians. Psychosomatic and reactive disorders are the most frequent men tal disorders to be seen in primary care with nearly 60%. Verbal therapy is often applied, procedures of the so-called psychosomatic basic care and pr escription of psychotropic drugs play only a minor role. Nearly every fourt h patient is referred to other specialists, referrals for inpatient treatme nt occur with 1.3 % only. Discussion: Because of the low response rate our study is not representativ e. Nevertheless the results permit some conclusions concerning the relation ship between psychosocial qualification of general practitioners and their management of patients with mental disorders.