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Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in General Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Paul Freeling
Paul Freeling*
Affiliation:
Division of General Practice and Primary Care, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, Tooting, London SW17 0RE
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Extract

General practitioners (GPs) work in an environment different from that of most of their specialist colleagues. Some of these differences stem from being a doctor of first contact, some from working in one part of a multi-tier system for providing medical care, and some from the referral system which deals with the movement of patients between these tiers. Other differences stem from the GP's National Health Service contract to provide continuity of care 24 hours a day, and to make early diagnoses as well as monitoring normal development on one hand and chronic impairment, handicap, and disability on the other. The British GP works with a defined list of registered patients who can present symptoms representing disorders of a wide range of severity, originating in any bodily system. These symptoms can result from any type of pathogenic stimulus, including disordered perception: even temporary variation from the patient's usual subjective experience may arouse natural concern.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue S20: The Economic Evaluation of Antidepressant Drug Therapy , July 1993 , pp. 14 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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