To the Editor: Wilhelm and colleagues falsely concluded in their recent study that general practitioners in metropolitan Sydney and rural New South Wales had a low rate of recognition of psychological problems overall.1 Furthermore, Wilhelm et al took GPs’ judgements of the presence of psychological problems as the benchmark for “caseness” because of the difference between GP practice and psychiatric practice in the process of assessing psychological problems in consultation. My disagreement lies with what the researchers meant by “overall” and by “caseness”.
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- Academic Unit of General Practice and Community Health, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT.
- 1. Wilhelm KA, Finch AW, Davenport TA, Hickie IB. What can alert the general practitioner to people whose common mental health problems are unrecognised? Med J Aust 2008; 188 (12 Suppl): S114-S118. <eMJA full text> <MJA full text>
- 2. Bushnell J; MaGPIe Research Group. Frequency of consultations and general practitioner recognition of psychological symptoms. Br J Gen Pract 2004; 54: 838-843.
- 3. Collings S; MaGPIe Research Group. Disability and the detection of mental disorder in primary care. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2005; 40: 994-1002.