Referral of patients with depression to mental health care by Dutch general practitioners: an observational study

Abstract Background Depression is a common illness, often treated in primary care. Guidelines provide recommendations for referral to mental health care. Several studies investigated determinants of referral, none investigated guideline criteria as possible determinants. We wanted to evaluate general practitioner's referral of depressed patients to mental health care and to what extent this is in agreement with (Dutch) guideline recommendations. Methods We used data of primary care respondents from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety with major depressive disorder in the past year... Mehr ...