Improving Access to Psychiatric Care for Patients in Primary Care

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

Faced with the saturation of the psychiatric care system, who recognizes the key role of the GP in mental health. Three-quarters of prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics are performed by GPs, but less than one in four people with depression have been diagnosed and treated appropriately. ...

Faced with the saturation of the psychiatric care system, who recognizes the key role of the GP in mental health. Three-quarters of prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics are performed by GPs, but less than one in four people with depression have been diagnosed and treated appropriately. The GPs describe difficulties in accessing psychiatric professionals and in particular to obtain a quick consultation with a psychiatrist. In different countries, psychiatric consultation-liaison (CL), centered on the collaboration of general medicine and psychiatry, have emerged. Two meta-analyzes and a Cochrane review were conducted on CL but no clinical trials were conducted in France. CL seems to improve patients' health at 3 months as well as their satisfaction and adherence to care. Results regarding the improvement of prescriptions from GP are encouraging. Better clinical trials are being requested and a need for medico-economic studies is also identified. In France, a psychiatry CL was born in Toulouse in 2017, the "DSPP". The present study plans a 2 groups randomized clinical trial, one group of GPs having access to DSPP, the other not. For a period of 3 months, the GPs propose to any patient, for whom they want a psychiatric consultation, to participate in the study and address him/her to a psychiatrist. The DSPP is an evaluation center without long-term patient follow-up. Only patient referred by his/her GP can get into the DSPP.

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