do you think primary care physicians are neglecting mental health as part of their diagnostic process?

do you think primary care physicians are neglecting mental health as part of their diagnostic process?i thought they should be well rounded and the first line of treatment for a multitude of medical tasks. i thought referrals would be in need as well as a priliminary assessment of the situation. sounds dramatic, but i feel as if primary care/internal med docs are becoming prejudiced against people with mental health problems. they dont think it is their responsibility to help their patient with anything mental health (as far as the majority goes). they could read about things or become more accepting, but i havent seen it yet. i applaud those who do take it in account of regular health. dont they get that the brain is connected to the body and that physiological changes take place. you would think they would try to understand just for the physical problems associated with mental health problems (if not just to know the contraindications for medications involved).

thoughts???
any,,,,and all opinions on the topic are welcome.
if comfortable, i would like to hear a sympathetic story where you too believed you could have been treated in a more thoughtful manner.
if you are a doc, i would like to hear your thoughts also.

thanks

Answer by Summer H
I think this is very true. I was diagnosed with anorexia when I was 15 even though I'd been restricting for almost 2 years by the time the doctor actually listened to my mother and my weight was so dangerously low he couldn't ignore it any longer.
It was basically only when my physical health was in danger that he actually listened and helped. He also had no clue how to handle my depression and I only got real treatment for this when i went into inpatient care for my eating disorder.
I truly think that if he had taken notice earlier and helped to get me help then maybe i wouldn't still be struggling with anorexia 7 years on.
I think the whole healthcare system is prejudiced against anyone with a psychological illness and until you are physically in danger they dont seem to care.

Answer by serengeti_lion
Considering antidepressants are the most prescribed class of drugs in the world these days, I'd actually be inclined to believe the opposite is true. Primary care physicians are too quick to write off problems as being "all in the patients head" if they can't come up with a quick and immediate answer for what is causing symptoms. They simply write it off as "physical symptoms caused by depression" or something, and then write a prescription for "happy pills".

As far as someone with real mental health issues, well, they need to be seeing a specialist who is specifically trained to deal with those issues.

Answer by Jody
Primary Care is a specialized branch of general medicine (which includes limited to moderate basic psychiatric instruction), just as ob-gyn, dentistry, eye-ear-nose-and throat, and psychiatry are specialized branches, but you would not expect them to do your annual physical or routine bloodwork..

I trust my family doctor to treat me or my child for depression, but not for Bipolar or PTSD. For something serious, I want a specialist. Likewise a pcp would rather a psych patient went to a psychiatrist because of malpractice issues.

Psychiatric patients do have a stigma, and I think some doctors (of any specialty) can be prejudice.

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