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  Research Summary:

Although psychiatric disorders are among the most common disorders in patients seeing primary care physicians, they are often underdiagnosed and undertreated. One new method of increasing the rate of detection of psychiatric disorders in primary care patients is by using self-report screening questionnaires. There have been few studies examining the acceptability of mental health screening in primary care outpatients. The goals of this study are: (1) to examine the acceptability of mental health screening in medical outpatients, (2) to conduct a randomized control group design trial to examine the effect of administering a brief self administered screening questionnaire on patient-physician interaction, (3) to determine whether this intervention influences patients' beliefs about having mental health problems, increases the likelihood that primary care physicians address mental health issues, and improves patients' satisfaction with the psychosocial aspects of their care. We will examine whether patients' attitudes and satisfaction vary by the type of psychopathology assessed (depression, anxiety, and substance abuse), and whether demographic and cultural factors are associated with the acceptance of mental health assessment. The setting will be the RI Hospital medical outpatient waiting area, where we will recruit 1500 medical outpatients into the project. Informed consent will be obtained from consecutive adult outpatients of either sex, ages 18-65, who are able to read/write English. The instruments which will be administered include the SCREENER; PAS, Patient Acceptability Scale; and Post-Test.