UNTREATED PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY - A GENERAL PRACTICE STUDY

A follow-up investigation of a group of general practice patients with psychiatric disorders is reported. Attention was directed particularly to those who reported symptoms but were not receiving medical attention. Assessment of an original cohort of 343 psychiatrically ill patients after three years, by means of a postal questionnaire and by questioning the practitioners concerned about the clinical state of each patient, identified 71 who either (a) had not consulted their doctors for six months or longer, or (b) had been regarded as psychiatrically well at the last consultation. 50 (72%) of these consented to interview and current psychiatric disorder was confirmed by interview in 34. The interviewers ratings of the severity of the current psychiatric disturbance were: severe, one case; moderate, 11 cases; and mild, 22 cases. 13 of these 34 patients fell into group (a) and 21 into group (b). In two of the latter cases the practitioners' erroneous ratings of recovered were due to lapses of memory on their own part; in the remainder they were due to the patient's failure to report their psychiatric symptoms at consultation. Their reasons for this failure are considered, together with those offered by patients in group (a) for non-consultation, under nine headings. The findings are discussed. The severity of the symptomatology concerned is considered and compared with that of other sub-groups of the main survey. Some implications of the findings for medical care are suggested. © 1969 Springer-Verlag.