title: Psychiatric morbidity among frequent attender patients in primary care.
abstract: In this study, 96 frequent attender patients in primary care were compared with 466 other primary care patients. The focus was on psychiatric morbidity, current and former psychiatric treatment, and self-perceived need for treatment. The prevalence of psychiatric illness was much greater among frequent attender patients than other patients (54.0% vs. 24.0%, p < 0.001), and subclinical symptoms were common in both groups (34.0% vs. 43.2%). Depression and anxiety were the most common clinical entities among frequent attender patients. However, very few patients had psychiatric treatment and the self-perceived need for treatment was low. The significance of these findings is discussed in the paper.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lehtinen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joukamaa
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009017:Morbidity; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*