[The general practitioner and psychiatric assistance. A study carried out in the Piedmont region]

The study examines the relation between the general practitioner, in the Piedmont Region, and the possibility of providing psychiatric assistance (direct prescription of psychopharmacological treatment, psychological interview for generally psychotherapeutic purposes, referral of patient to psychiatric specialist) within the context of out-patient activities. For this purpose a 24-question questionnaire was drawn up and sent to 303 G.P.'s Piedmont whose names were supplied by the Italian Society of General Medicine. One hundred and forty-four GPs returned the answered questionnaire; from an analysis of the replies it emerged that the problems (GP's personal anxiety, lack of specific training, problems of time, payment and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders) concerning the relation between the said GPs and the aforesaid psychiatric assistance have not changed over the past 15 years even in view of the high attendance rate of patients with psychic pathologies and a widespread readiness of the GPs to take personal responsibility for these patients.