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Psychosocial problem disclosure by primary care patients

John W Robinson and Debra L Roter

Social Science & Medicine, 1999, vol. 48, issue 10, 1353-1362

Abstract: The vast majority of psychologically distressed primary care patients present exclusively somatic concerns at the outsets of their visits. However, it is not known how often such patients subsequently disclose psychosocial problems to their primary care physicians (PCPs) and what variables predict such disclosures. Our objectives were to measure, among psychologically distressed primary care patients, the frequency of disclosure of psychosocial problems (disclosure), the effects of prior psychosocial inquiry (prior inquiry) by PCPs and various patient variables on disclosure, and the effect of disclosure on mental health problem recognition (recognition) by PCPs. The study was based in the practices of 69 community-based PCPs and involved 308 adult patients with 28-item General Health Questionnaire scores of 5 or greater, indicating significant psychological distress. Disclosure occurred during 51% of visits overall and 67% of visits with prior inquiry. The odds of disclosure were increased by prior inquiry (p

Keywords: Primary; care; Mental; health; Psychosocial; problems; Physician-patient; communication; Disclosure; Recognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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