ABSTRACT
The Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) is a two-stage case-finding and diagnostic instrument that was designed specifically for primary care clinicians in the general medical setting (Spitzer et al., 1994). Half of individuals with psychopathology who receive any medical care do so exclusively from primary care providers. Although one quarter of adult primary care patients have mental disorders, half or fewer of those disorders are detected, and those that are detected often receive suboptimal treatment. Admittedly, primary care patients with mental disorders may have fewer and milder symptoms and less impairment than patients seen by mental health specialists. On the other hand, mental disorders encountered in primary care are associated with more functional impairment than most of the physical disorders that are typically the principal focus of general medicine.
