ABSTRACT
Psychiatric epidemiology needs long-term longitudinal studies that differentiate major disorders from the ‘minor’ disorders more frequently seen in primary care. The New Brunswick Department of Health produced a research file that collated statistical data from public psychiatric settings, with data from general hospital medical and surgical wards and private physicians. The fee-for-service system pays general practitioners for counselling and psychiatric services. Most of the inception cases which entered specialist care did so without prior psychiatric contact with primary-care physicians. Many patients in general practice have some type of mental disorder. There is a substantial recognition of mental disorder by general practitioners in New Brunswick. Altogether, during the period 1975-1981, 7 per cent of the adult inhabitants were recorded by physicians within non-specialist settings as having a mental disorder. Universal national health insurance is available to all Canadian residents on equal terms and conditions.
