Connect
MJA
MJA

What can alert the general practitioner to people whose common mental health problems are unrecognised?

Marjan Kljakovic
Med J Aust 2009; 190 (4): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02360.x
Published online: 16 February 2009

To the Editor: Wilhelm and colleagues falsely concluded in their recent study that general practitioners in metropolitan Sydney and rural New South Wales had a low rate of recognition of psychological problems overall.1 Furthermore, Wilhelm et al took GPs’ judgements of the presence of psychological problems as the benchmark for “caseness” because of the difference between GP practice and psychiatric practice in the process of assessing psychological problems in consultation. My disagreement lies with what the researchers meant by “overall” and by “caseness”.


  • Academic Unit of General Practice and Community Health, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT.


Correspondence: marjan.kljakovic@anu.edu.au

  • 1. Wilhelm KA, Finch AW, Davenport TA, Hickie IB. What can alert the general practitioner to people whose common mental health problems are unrecognised? Med J Aust 2008; 188 (12 Suppl): S114-S118. <eMJA full text> <MJA full text>
  • 2. Bushnell J; MaGPIe Research Group. Frequency of consultations and general practitioner recognition of psychological symptoms. Br J Gen Pract 2004; 54: 838-843.
  • 3. Collings S; MaGPIe Research Group. Disability and the detection of mental disorder in primary care. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2005; 40: 994-1002.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.