[New ways for treatment of depression in primary care]

Depression is the most frequent psychiatric disorder and is associated with marked distress and work impairment. General practitioners are primarily involved in the treatment of these patients, but they lack specific training and the most important target to enhance access to suitable care. Systematic referral to a psychiatrist is not always recommended, not well accepted from the everyday patient and totally unfeasible due to the lack of therapists' vacancy. Well structured psychiatric counseling may be a valuable alternative in order to lower misdiagnosis and to improve the treatment. This paper reports the rationale of a pilot program aimed to disseminate the provision of such aid. This program extends the consultation-liaison to outpatient and may have a clinical and economic impact with relevance to depression treatment policies.