Reasons to be cheerful? Reflections on GPs' responses to depression.

摘要

The papers related to depression in this issue of the Journal offer reasons to be cheerful about GPs' diagnostic abilities and treatment decisions: but they also generate internal debate, and require further reflection.The perennial question of whether GPs are competent at diagnosing depression receives an affirmative response from the study in the Grampian region of Scotland undertaken by Cameron etal.This study confirms previous research from Hampshire and elsewhere that GPs are more likely to make a diagnosis of depression as symptom severity increases.