Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three primary-care clinics in Beersheba, Israel. Concurrent assessment by the general health questionnaire, general practitioners, and research diagnostic criteria

The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) had identified fully 69% of 776 respondents who attended 12 primary-care clinics as "probable cases" of psychiatric disorders, whereas the general practitioners (GPs) involved had thought only 31% had psychological problems. To investigate more accurately the prevalence of psychiatric disorders we examined 112 of the original sample with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, Life-time version and found only 15% to have had a Research Diagnostic Criteria disorder at the time of the initial study. Raising the GHQ threshold to 15 16 improved specificity and positive predictive value, and improved GPs' case-finding modestly. These respondents either suffered from high rates of subclinical distress or readily report subjective distress in the clinic, or both.