Identification of Emotional Disturbance in Patients Seen in General Medical Clinics

This study focuses on the extent to which physicians employed in five general-hospital clinics in Monroe County, New York, detected emotional problems among their patients. Of 1413 patients 15 years old or older seen during the reporting period, 311, or 22 per cent, were judged by clinic physicians to have emotional disorders. Demographic and medical data for all patients in the study are reported, and the extent of the problems of patients with emotional disorders is considered at length. Rates of emotional disorders were higher at the two university-based clinics where psychiatric training was emphasized (27 per cent), than at the three nonuniversity-based clinics (10 per cent). Possible reasons for and implications of the difference in rates are discussed.