[The "Patient Anxiety Seminar" as a graduate education program--effectiveness and use in general practice]

This article describes results of an evaluation study of a seminar for patients with anxiety, an education program for primary care physicians. Before and after the two seminars, 109 participants filled out a questionnaire about their opinion on the program as well as their attitudes, experience and knowledge in dealing with anxiety patients. They were compared with a control group which did not take part in the program. After 3 and 12 months, a part of the participants was interviewed again. It was found that anxiety patients call for a lot of attention from general practitioners and that diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge is not sufficient. The educational program was highly rated by the participants. The seminars were conducted in the practice by most of the participants in groups as well as on single patients. It became evident that in spite of high expenses there is a wide acceptance of such seminars and that the variables examined up to now indicate a surprisingly high efficiency of the educational programme.