Family practitioners' knowledge about treatment of depressive illness
R. Ketai
Since nonpsychiatrists, particularly family practitioners, treat a large
proportion of patients with depressive illness, their knowledge in this
area should be assessed. An audience of 227 family practitioners at a
postgraduate symposium were examined on basic principles of treatment of
depressive illness, particularly the use of tricyclic antidepressants.
Their responses were compared to a group of 17 university psychiatrists.
The results showed that the family practitioners knew the right treatment
for endogenous depression but tended to prescribe inadequate doses of
tricyclics and gave too short a therapeutic trial as compared to
psychiatrists. Both the psychiatrists and family practitioners tended to
discontinue medications about three to six months after improvement, which
is considered a somewhat short treatment span but not inappropriate. Family
practitioners need to become better informed about tricyclic dosages and
therapeutic trials.
