When it comes to your health, your family doctor is on the front lines and is the first person you go to with questions or complaints about the way you feel.
Now a number of new studies are taking a look at how family doctors are dealing with some of the more tricky conditions to spot and treat. Dr. Marla Shapiro, our medical expert talks about what doctors need to be doing.
- Family doctors or GPs are the first person we go to with any medical problems - so they are the first line of defense in treating mental illnesses, substance abuse and chronic illnesses.
- A new study reviewed how well family doctors are treating these conditions
- The study found that there was no strong evidence that family doctors are handling these conditions well, but also found they weren't doing any harm.
- The study found that when it was done - talk therapy as a treatment for depression was particularly effective. The way it works is that family doctors talk through problems with their patients, and help them understand symptoms are caused by everyday problems, and they teach ways to tackle these problems.
- The study was published by the Cochrane Collaboration - an international organization that evaluates medical research.
- It looked at 10 studies on the effectiveness of family doctors in dealing with depression, smoking cessation, alcohol abuse and unexplained fatigue, as well disorders where patients have chronic, unexplained physical symptoms caused by psychological problems,.
- Since family doctors are the first person people go see about all health problems, GPs can benefit from tools to help people with psychosocial problems.
- The message isn't that you shouldn't go to your family doctors with these kinds of problems - you absolutely should talk to your GP with any of these concerns. The message is more for family doctors to be looking out for these kinds of complaints and to be keeping up on how they should be diagnosing and treating these kinds of patients
