Beliefs of Australian health professionals about the helpfulness of interventions for mental disorders: Differences between professions and change over time

Abstract

Objective: To assess the beliefs of general practitioners (GPs), psychiatrists and clinical psychologists about the helpfulness of different interventions for mental disorders, and to examine change in beliefs over time. Methods: A questionnaire was mailed to 6848 GPs, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists registered with Medicare Australia. The questionnaire was based around one of six vignettes describing a person with a mental disorder: depression, depression with suicidal thoughts, early schizophrenia, chronic schizophrenia, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder. The depression and early schizophrenia vignettes were identical to those used in a similar survey of health prof..