How does the general practitioner understand the patient? A qualitative study about psychological interventions in...

Area of Science:

• General Practice
• Psychiatry
• Qualitative Research

Background:

• General practitioners (GPs) manage over 90% of common mental disorders.
• The specific interventions used by GPs for mental health remain unclear.
• Understanding GPs' approaches to patients with emotional distress is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how general practitioners understand patients presenting with emotional problems.
• To identify the processes and factors influencing GPs' comprehension of patients' emotional states.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews with 14 general practitioners.
• Surgical observations were conducted for four participating GPs.
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and hermeneutic-phenomenological perspectives were used for data analysis.

Main Results:

• GPs exhibited diverse approaches to patients with emotional issues, often presenting as physical symptoms.
• Some GPs focused on understanding the patient's perception of bodily symptoms within their life context, often revealed through narrative.
• Relational factors and GP self-awareness/reflexivity impacted this understanding process; however, some GPs did not engage in this deeper exploration.

Conclusions:

• The concept of 'mentalization' can describe GPs' understanding processes in psychosocial interventions and contribute to general practice theory.
• A mentalizing approach was observed in only some GPs.
• Enhancing GPs' mentalization capacity is recommended for improved patient treatment and inter-professional dialogue.