Prevalence and comorbidity of common mental disorders in primary care
Received 6 February 2009; received in revised form 16 March 2009; accepted 16 March 2009.
Abstract
Objective
To estimate the prevalence and comorbidity of the most common mental disorders in primary care practice in Spain, using the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) questionnaire.
Design
A systematic sample of 7936 adult primary care patients was recruited by 1925 general practitioners in a large cross-sectional national epidemiological study. The PRIME-MD was used to diagnose psychiatric disorders.
Setting
1356 primary care units proportionally distributed throughout the country.
Results
53.6% of the sample presented one or more psychiatric disorder. The most prevalent were affective (35.8%), anxiety (25.6%), and somatoform (28.8%) disorders. 30.3% of the patients had more than one current mental disorder. 11.5% presented comorbidity between affective, anxiety, and somatoform disorders.
Conclusions
The study provides further evidence of the high prevalence and high comorbidity of mental disorders in primary care. Given the large overlap between affective, anxiety and somatoform disorders, future diagnostic classifications should reconsider the current separation between these entities.
aInstitut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Juan March Hospital, University of Balearic Islands, Red de Investigación de Actividades Preventivas y Promoción de la Salud (RedIAPP), Palma de Mallorca, Spain
ABSTRACT