The relationship between chief complaints, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation in 15-24-year-old patients presenting to general practitioners.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of psychological distress and suicidal ideation among patients aged 15-24 years presenting to general practitioners, and the relationship between these variables and patients' chief complaints.


METHODS
Questionnaire survey of young people presenting to Australian general practitioners between 1996 and 1998.


METHODS
247 general practitioners who volunteered to participate in a nationwide project aimed at teaching general practitioners to identify and treat suicidal youth; 3242 consecutive 15-24-year-old patients presenting to participating general practitioners during a specified six-week period.


METHODS
Patients completed three self-administered questionnaires: the General Health Questionnaire-12, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the Depressive Symptom Inventory-Suicidality Subscale. Patients' chief complaints were obtained from summary sheets completed by their general practitioners.


RESULTS
While only 12% of patients presented with psychological complaints, about 50% percent had clinically significant levels of psychological distress and 22% had clinically significant levels of suicidal ideation.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite presenting with primarily medical complaints, almost half of young people presenting to primary care physicians had high levels of psychological distress and almost a quarter had high levels of suicidal ideation.
McKelvey
R S
RS
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, OHSU, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Pfaff
J J
JJ
Acres
J G
JG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013648:Tasmania; D014739:Victoria; D014904:Western Australia; D000092864:Suicide Prevention