Family practitioners' knowledge about treatment of depressive illness

Since nonpsychiatrists, particularly family practitioners, treat a large proportion of patients with depressive illness, their knowledge in this area should be assessed. An audience of 227 family practitioners at a postgraduate symposium were examined on basic principles of treatment of depressive illness, particularly the use of tricyclic antidepressants. Their responses were compared to a group of 17 university psychiatrists. The results showed that the family practitioners knew the right treatment for endogenous depression but tended to prescribe inadequate doses of tricyclics and gave too short a therapeutic trial as compared to psychiatrists. Both the psychiatrists and family practitioners tended to discontinue medications about three to six months after improvement, which is considered a somewhat short treatment span but not inappropriate. Family practitioners need to become better informed about tricyclic dosages and therapeutic trials.