Norwegian general practitioners' perceptions of their depression care - a national survey

Abstract

Background: The General Practitioner (GP) is often the first professional contact for patients with depression. Depression care constitutes a substantial part of GPs' workload.

Objective: To assess how GPs experience their patients' expectations and their own provision of depression care; further, how their depression care was associated with doctor- and practice-characteristics.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study about depression care in general practice among the GPs in the Norwegian Physician Survey of 2021.

Results: Of the 221 responding GPs, 50% were female and 70% agreed to have constant time pressure due to workload. The GPs believed that patients with depression were interested in their professional assessment (87.2%) and saw them as providers of talking therapy (76,9%). Still, 77,8% of the GPs thought the patients expected a referral. Talking therapy was commonly provided (79.6%) along with consultations of more than 30 min (80.4%). The youngest age group and GPs with shorter patient lists spent more time. Most GPs (92.3%) considered their help to be of great benefit for depressed patients. However, one-fourth of the GPs did not feel competent in providing talking therapy, less frequently reported by the GPs aged 40-54 years.

Conclusions: Talking therapy is commonly provided by GPs. However, there is a need to investigate what GP talking therapy implies, and to strengthen GP skills in this regard. Overall, the GPs experience their depression care to be useful for their patients, and do not de-prioritize this although they experience workload pressure.

Keywords: Depression; General practitioners; Primary health care; Talking therapy.