Learning by doing: a novel approach to improving general practitioners' diagnostic skills for common mental disorders

Two strategies have been proposed to increase the rather low recognition rate of common mental disorders in primary care: (1) the use of screening instruments and (2) extensive psychiatric training for general practitioners. We have chosen a "middle-of-the-road" approach to teach general practitioners by means of a time-saving psychiatric training programme how to make their own psychiatric diagnoses. This pilot study aimed at assessing the acceptance of this programme, its impact on general practitioners' knowledge of 12 ICD-10 disorders - depressive, anxiety and alcohol-related disorders - and the short-term persistence of the knowledge acquired.

The training programme consisted of two 3-hour sessions four weeks apart. An educational instrument, a short interview named TRIPS (Training for Interactive Psychiatric Screening), a shortened and adapted form of PRIME-MD, was used to train single-handed general practitioners in Vienna, Austria. TRIPS had to be used by the participants in daily practice in between sessions. Five weeks after the second training session a follow-up evaluation was held to assess the persistence of the knowledge acquired. The perceived usefulness of TRIPS was assessed by a short questionnaire. Knowledge was assessed by a separate 15-item questionnaire.

Of the 31 participating general practitioners 26 attended all three sessions. There was a significant increase in the mean number of correctly answered questions between baseline (5.5 of 15) and session two (9.8; p<0.0001), and a further increase between the second and the follow-up session (11.3; p<0.05). Also, general practitioners rated TRIPS as a practical and useful tool for family practice and stated that its use met with patients' approval.

The format chosen was successful in its intended educational endpoints. According to participants TRIPS is appropriate for the family practice situation and is accepted by patients.