[Collaboration with psychiatrists and other mental health professionals]

A large body of evidence shows that a bidirectional relationship exists between mental disorders, such as depression, and medical illnesses, which has a negative impact on the prognosis and treatment of either the former or latter condition. An adequate collaboration among primary health care professionals, specialist physicians, and psychiatrists is required. Various mental health care models, including multidisciplinary collaborative care model, as well as guidelines for depressive disorders have been developed in the primary care setting. In these models, patients have a much better guarantee of accessing integrated care than patients referred to a second-line mental health care setting, which is currently a common practice in Japan.