One in Nine Primary Care Visits Is for a Mental Health Issue
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 4, 2024 -- One in nine primary care visits is for a mental health condition, according to a study published online Sept. 19 in Nature Mental Health.
Avshalom Caspi, Ph.D., from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues examined how many primary care encounters are devoted to mental health versus physical health conditions using data from Norway's nationwide administrative primary care records (2006 to 2019) for patients aged 0 to 100 years. The analysis included 4.89 million patients with 354.5 million encounters.
The researchers found that one in nine encounters (11.7 percent) involved a mental health condition. Only musculoskeletal conditions accounted for a greater share of visits. Mental health encounters in primary care equaled the number of encounters for infections and cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, and exceeded encounters for pain, injuries, metabolic, digestive, skin, urological, reproductive, and sensory conditions.
"This study adds information about the magnitude of mental health care in primary care," the authors write. "The large volume of primary-care encounters devoted to diverse mental health conditions underscores the need for physician training in mental health, for integrated mental health services and for workforce capacity planning. Primary care physicians may have a more important role in preventing the escalation of mental health problems than heretofore appreciated."
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2024
Read this next
Sensitive Personalities Tied to More Mental Health Conditions
FRIDAY, Aug. 22, 2025 -- People with sensitive personalities are more prone to common mental health problems such as agoraphobia and avoidant personality disorder, according to a...
Ambient Documentation Technology Helps to Reduce Clinician Burnout
FRIDAY, Aug. 22, 2025 -- An ambient documentation technology (ADT), which develops artificial intelligence-drafted clinical notes from clinician-patient conversations, reduces...
One in 10 Mental Health-Related ED Visits Among Youths Involve Boarding
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 20, 2025 -- Boarding is a considerable issue for Medicaid-enrolled youths seeking mental health care in emergency departments (EDs), according to a research letter...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.