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Late life depression and dementia: a mental health literacy survey of Australian general practitioners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2009

Chanaka Wijeratne  and
Peter Harris
Chanaka Wijeratne*
Affiliation:
Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, and School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia
Peter Harris
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr C Wijeratne, Euroa Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. Phone: +61 02 9382 3759; Fax: +61 02 9382 3762. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Background: Whilst previous surveys of mental health literacy of general practitioners (GPs) have shown high rates of recognition of common mental disorders, few studies have been carried out into GPs' understanding of presentations in late life. This study aims to determine GPs' recognition of mental disorders in older people, their intentions regarding investigation, specialist referral and treatment, and their beliefs about prognosis.

Methods: Australian GPs who attended an educational seminar were administered questions based on clinical vignettes describing older people with depression, dementia and coronary heart disease.

Results: There was a high rate of recognition of all disorders amongst the 436 respondents. GPs demonstrated a high level of consistency about screening questionnaires, investigations and specialist referral in the dementia vignette. In contrast, less than half of GPs endorsed using a screening questionnaire or neuroimaging, and considered referral to a variety of medical specialties in the depression vignette. For both the depression and dementia vignettes, self-help treatments like walking, dietary advice or alcohol reduction were endorsed more frequently than an antidepressant or cholinesterase inhibitor respectively. Dementia tended to be viewed as having a poor prognosis, and late-life depression a moderate prognosis.

Conclusions: Actual or intended rates of diagnostic recognition, specialist referral and benzodiazepine prescription found in this study may not translate into clinical practice for a number of reasons. Non-specific treatments without a clear evidence base were considered as often as those with a stronger evidence base. There is a need to improve the knowledge of GPs with regard to screening and investigating late life depression and managing dementia.

Keywords

primary careold age psychiatryknowledge
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 330 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2009

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