Depression and anxiety in Chinese patients attending general practice

Project Coordinator

Dr George Tang

Chief Investigators

Associate Investigators

Other Team Members

Elizabeth Comino, Sarah Dennis, Nicholas Zwar

Rationale

The Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being found that in the 12 months prior to interview, 5.8% of the adult population had major depression and 9.7% had anxiety disorder. (Henderson S. 2000).

Minor psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression and somatoform disorder, are common in general practice in Australia, making up 6.6% of patient encounter. (Bridges-Webb C., etc. 1992). General practitioners are considered to be the first point of contact if people are suffering from mental illness. (RACGP-Mental Health National Benchmark, 2003) Early detection by screening with General Health Questionnaire improves the outcome for depressed patients. (Johnstone A. and Goldberg D. 1976). Previous studies suggested that general practitioners (Lublin HK, 2002) or non-psychiatric physicians (Ford DE, 1990) frequently do not recognize depression disorder. In a study in New Zealand general practice, general practitioners detected only 51% of depression cases in their clinics while the rest of depression cases were picked up by a health and mood questionnaire. (Arroll B, 2002) Furthermore, Comino and colleagues suggested that such under diagnosis of depressive or anxiety symptoms may be even more substantial among Asian patients. (Comino E, 2001)

Previous research has identified showed that there was a trend of increased anxiety or depression with increasing deprivation. (Kadam U, 2001). Many Chinese immigrants have lost their original occupations after immigration. Many factors such as unrecognized skills or education, language barrier, and failure to adapt into the Australian society may all contribute to their “loss” or deprivation. In fact, immigrants who were less well integrated into society are more likely to have depression. (Adamopoulou A., Garyfallos G., Bouras N. and Kouloumas G. 1990).

Many Chinese immigrants have lost their original occupations after immigration to Australia and are often also isolated by their language skills.

Aims

Design and Method

Practice survey

Key Publications

Nil as yet.