CG123 Common mental health disorders - National Institute for ...

Common mental health disordersTable 3: Twelve-month prevalence of anxiety disorders in New Zealand(Oakley Browne et al., 2006)Condition Prevalence (%) in Prevalence (%) in theprimary care (N 908) community (N 12,992)Any anxiety disorder 20.7 14.8Specific phobia 11.0 7.3GAD 6.6 2.9Social phobia 3.7 5.1PTSD 3.4 3.0OCD 2.9 0.6Panic disorder without 2.0 1.7agoraphobiaAgoraphobia 0.2 0.6disorder; and new and adapted models of service delivery, which focus on the needsof black and minority ethnic (BME) groups and older people.2.4.2 IdentificationRecognition of depressionOf the 80 people with depression per 1000 population who do consult their GP, 49 arenot recognised as depressed, mainly because most such patients are consulting for asomatic symptom and do not consider themselves mentally unwell despite the presenceof symptoms of depression (Kisely et al., 1995). People who present withsomatic symptoms are especially unlikely to be recognised (Kisely et al., 1995). GPstend to be better at recognising more severe forms of the disorder (Goldberg et al.,1998; Thompson et al., 2001). With 50% of people with depression never consultinga doctor, 95% never entering secondary mental health services, and many morehaving their depression going unrecognised and untreated, this is clearly a problemfor primary care.Recognition of anxiety disordersAnxiety symptoms are also often not recognised by primary healthcare professionalsbecause, once again, patients may not complain of them overtly (Tylee & Walters,2007). Cases of anxiety are especially likely to be missed when people frequentlyattend with multiple symptoms, despite reassurance. Instead, these symptoms areoften characterised as possible symptoms of cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal,neurological or musculoskeletal disease (Blashki et al., 2007).36