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Rates of treatment of schizophrenia by general practitioners. A pilot study
1Discipline of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, NSW.
Objective:
To investigate how many people with schizophrenia are being treated by general practitioners (GPs) and what the associations are between GP characteristics and the number of patients with schizophrenia in their practice.
Design And Setting:
Pilot study by postal survey of all GPs in the Hunter/Taree region.
Participants:
349 of 495 GPs (70.5%) replied to the survey--245 urban GPs and 104 rural GPs from the Hunter/Taree region of New South Wales.
Main Outcome Measures:
GP estimates of the number of patients with schizophrenia currently being treated and by whom.
Results:
Three-quarters of the GPs in the region were treating patients with schizophrenia, proportionately more in rural areas (87.5%) than in urban areas (70.2%). The typical GP was treating three patients with schizophrenia, two conjointly with specialist services and one without specialist support. It was estimated that the GP-treated prevalence for schizophrenia is 35.5 per 10,000 adults.
Conclusion:
Although individual GPs treat a small number of patients with schizophrenia, collectively they treat most of the patients with this disorder. Because schizophrenia has such a high burden of illness for the patient and the community, we need to find suitable mechanisms for evaluating and enhancing the treatment of schizophrenia in general practice.