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Psychiatric morbidity in general practice and the community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

David Goldberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester and the Barlow Medical Centre, West Didsbury, Manchester
Clifford Kay
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester and the Barlow Medical Centre, West Didsbury, Manchester
Linda Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester and the Barlow Medical Centre, West Didsbury, Manchester
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor David Goldberg, Department of Psychiatry, The University Hospital of South Manchester, West Didsbury, Manchesterr M20 8LR.

Synopsis

The ‘General Health Questionnaire’ was used to assess the psychiatric morbidity among 365 consecutive attenders at a general practice and to compare this with a systematic random sample of 213 patients drawn from the lists of the same practice. Those attending a general practitioner are shown to be more psychiatrically disturbed than a random sample of the practice population, and this difference remains when those attending for psychological symptoms are discounted. Various social and demographic characteristics which distinguish between those who do and those who do not attend a doctor with a given set of psychological symptoms are described.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

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