INTEGRATING PSYCHIATRY INTO PRIMARY-CARE - AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL

General practitioners (GPs) working in a busy primary care setting attached to a teaching hosptial were exposed to patient-centred feedback teaching in which symptoms elicited by the general practitioner (GP) and an interview schedule in the index patient were used as a focus for instruction. Each of the seven GPs who completed the study had an average of 52 validated exposures spread over 3 months. Three of them became much better at detecting psychiatric disorders, two showed no noticeable improvement and two showed some deterioration. The personality and disposition of the GPs, rather than their years of experience, determined their response to the training programme. The implications of the findings is highlighted.