Abstract
Primary-care practice includes the diagnosis and treatment of both medical and mental disorders. However, primary-care practitioners infrequently diagnose mental disorders.1,2 Such “missed diagnoses” may be due to several factors: lack of education about detection and treatment of mental disorders; the constraints on time in a busy office practice that preclude indepth psychiatric interviews with every patient; and the difficulty of distinguishing symptoms of mental disorders amid physical complaints. Just as with medical illnesses, preventing the complications of mental disorders begins with early and accurate diagnosis. This chapter outlines the means of improving the detection of mental disorders by discussing (1) the role of prevention in mental disorders; (2) the epidemiology of mental disorders in the community and in the medical office; (3) the groups at risk for mental disorders; and (4) the symptoms (anxiety and depression) associated with the major mental disorders seen in office practices.
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© 1988 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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Harward, M.P., Connelly, J.E. (1988). Mental Disorders. In: Becker, D.M., Gardner, L.B. (eds) Prevention in Clinical Practice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5356-0_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5356-0_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5358-4
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