[Unemployed patients in 60 family practices]

In a one week registration of consultations by 60 general practitioners, 7% (95% confidence interval 6-8%) of all patients aged 16 to 66 were registered as unemployed. This was 145% of the mean unemployment rates in the municipalities where the doctors practiced. The age and gender composition of the unemployed patients was the same as for all registered unemployed. Psychiatric diagnoses were nearly twice as prevalent among the patients. A fifth of the unemployed patients attended for illnesses and conditions which seemed to relate to the unemployment. Most of them had somatic or mental disorders which probably were caused or worsened by lack of paid work. A few needed to discuss social insurance issues. The study did not support the idea that general practitioners medicalize unemployment problems, but provided no decisive evidence on this complicated question, which will be elaborated further during the next stage of the study.