[Cooperation of general practitioners with priority practices for addiction in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania]

The nine "priority practices for addiction" in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania participating in a model project are supposed to take a central and coordinating position within the addiction management. The aims of this study were to investigate a) the extent to which general practitioners are aware of these priority practices, b) the collaboration among general practices and priority practices and c) the predictors which promote cooperation.

One third of all general practitioners in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania (n = 330) were randomly sampled. Of these, 250 (75,8 %) practitioners (M = 51 years, SD = 10; 55,6 % female) participated in a 10 minutes telephone interview.

About a fourth of the practitioners reported cooperation with "priority practices for addiction". Of all practitioners 53,8 % were not collaborating with these practices or did not know about them. Logistic regressions revealed distance to a priority practices as the only significant predictor which indicated if practitioners referred patients to these priority practices. CONCLUSIONS The concept of this unique project is largely unknown and insufficiently used by practitioners. It should be more strongly communicated within the medical community in order to improve the numbers of referrals. Above that, these specialised practices should be established throughout the country.