Are You Ready for a Psychologist in your Family Doctor’s Office?

The National Health Service in UK forces administrators to consider alternate ways of providing services that are cheaper, but just as effective.  In the area of mental health, about 10% of UK citizens have anxiety or depressive disorders, the majority of them being treated in primary care (i.e. in family practitioner care).  Now University College London researchers have done a meta-analysis of studies of the use of brief psychotherapy done at general practitioner’s (family doctor’s) offices.  Their findings are reported in the BMC Medicine online journal. 

Controlled trials of brief psychological therapies of adults with anxiety, depression, or mixed anxiety-and-depression were identified and pooled for analyses.  There were 34 studies, involving 3,962 patients.  In each study, brief psychological therapy was compared with ‘usual primary care treatment’.  The psychological methods used were cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), problem solving therapy (PST), or counseling.

The analyses showed that brief CBT, PST, and counseling were all effective in treating depression, and mixed anxiety-and-depression.  (‘Brief’ in this series means 6 sessions, as opposed to the usual 12-24 sessions used in secondary care centers.)  Brief CBT used in anxiety was found to have a greater beneficial effect than its use in depression, and mixed anxiety-and-depression, and it was, overall, better than PST and counseling in treating anxiety.  However, the benefits of brief treatments were less than those reported by secondary care centers.

The results of this analysis were not surprising.  They provide support, however, for the concept of having psychological help available in doctor’s offices, provided practical problems can be overcome.  Once again, CBT appears to be superior to other psychological approaches in treating anxiety.

Comments

[Women’s online pharmacy]

hi,

i love all post,i am thanks to UK administrators to consider alternate ways of providing services which are cheaper for us, and very effective and helpful to all peoples related to
their health problems
i am thankful for sharing all these to me.