title: [General practioners and patients' general life problems].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many contact general practitioners (GPs) about non-medical problems in their lives; a situation which may be frustrating for GPs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured in-depth interviews with six Norwegian GPs by e-mail. The interviews were analysed according to a discourse analysis of which role the GPs considered they had, whether they saw themselves as therapists and how they perceived the personal strain related to working in general medicine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of GPs did not distinguish clearly between somatic and more general life-related problems. Nevertheless, they defined medical problems as quite strictly somatic and saw themselves mainly as experts in somatic medicine. They described themselves more as spiritual advisers (pastor-like) than as psychotherapists. Some meant that their work had given them more self- confidence and made them more tolerant, but many said they felt helpless in their role as doctors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GPs are doctors for all people. They have to relate to healthy and sick individuals with various medical and general life problems, and often experience a discrepancy between their medical competence and the challenges they meet.
authors: john.nessa@isf.uib.no
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Nessa
authors: Edvin
authors: E
authors: Schei
authors: Per
authors: P
authors: Stensland
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003376:Counseling; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires