ABSTRACT
Mental health problems are common in the general population. An international study of 14 countries, that investigated mental health problems in general health care, reported that 24% of the study population had a mental disorder (Üstün and Sartorius 1995). On average, disability levels among primary care patients with mental disorders were greater than disability levels among patients with other common chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and arthritis. In addition, they found a low to moderate correlation between recognition of mental disorder by a primary care physician, and research diagnosis according to standardised criteria, claiming that patients with mental disorder were neither recognised, nor treated sufficiently.
