RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Screening for psychosocial problems among primary care patients: a pilot study
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 1095
OP 1100
VO 137
IS 12
A1 I. McDowell
YR 1987
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/137/12/1095.abstract
AB The symptoms that a patient presents to the doctor are often not the underlying concern that prompted the consultation. The success of consultations involving a hidden diagnosis depends on how well the patient can express his or her concerns to the doctor and on how skilfully the doctor can encourage this. This study tested the feasibility and acceptability of having patients complete a brief health index questionnaire designed to help them describe their underlying concerns to the doctor. In two family medicine centres 996 patients were asked to complete a questionnaire while waiting to see the doctor; 724 (73%) did so. An evaluation of their responses showed the method to be acceptable to most. The doctors judged that it added valuable information in 41% of all consultations and in 73% of consultations in which the patient presented with psychologic complaints. There was, nevertheless, considerable variation among the physicians in their acceptance of the approach. This variability is discussed in the light of alternative models of how, in practical terms, to treat the psychosocial dimensions of a patient's complaint.