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Psychiatric Symptoms and Medical Utilization in Primary Care Patients

Received December 28, 1999; revised March 16, 2000; accepted June 19, 2000. From Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Carbone, M.D., Brigham and Women's Hospital, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

In two studies, the authors evaluated the impact of psychiatric disorders on medical care utilization in a primary care setting. In the first study, 526 consecutive patients in a teaching hospital primary care practice completed the 18-item RAND Mental Health Inventory to identify clinically significant depression and/or anxiety and a questionnaire about the use of psychiatric treatment and psychoactive medications. The medical utilization of those patients defined as depressed and/ or anxious was compared with those defined as not depressed and/or anxious. Patients identified as depressed and/or anxious reported significantly increased medical utilization, but this was not confirmed by the hospital's computerized record system. In the second study, the authors analyzed medical care utilization for the years before and after the first outpatient psychiatry appointment of a sample of 91 patients referred from the same primary care practice to the hospital's outpatient psychiatry clinic over a 1-year period. In both studies there was not a statistically significant difference in medical utilization among those patients receiving psychiatric treatment. The findings demonstrate the difficulties in examining cost offset in a primary care population and raise questions about it as a realistic outcome measure of the effect of psychiatric treatment.

Key Words: Primary Care • Medical utilization • Psychiatric symptoms

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