Knowledge and practice of general practitioners about schizophrenia

ABSTRACT

To obtain information about the number of patients attended by general practitioners in different stages of schizophrenia; relevant knowledge, diagnostic skills and ongoing practice concerning management of patients suffering from severe mental illness. For this cross sectional survey conducted from May to September 2010, a semi-structured questionnaire, obtained and modified from that of Simon AE et al was distributed among general practitioners working in Bannu district. The participants were requested to fill the questionnaire anonymously and return it to research worker. Out of 100, 72 general practitioners responded to the request of filling the questionnaire. Among them 60 [85%] were males. Only 17% replied that they could spare more than half an hour for the assessment of schizophrenic patients. Sixty four percent reported delusions and hallucinations as the most frequent symptoms of schizophrenia. Seventy percent relied on personal history for diagnosis of schizophrenia. Sixty percent practitioners considered pharmacotherapy as the first line therapy. More than half of them wanted to continue treatment for six to twelve months in first psychotic episode. Seventy percent preferred to refer the patients to specialist care for complete handover. No one of the working practitioners participated in continuing medical education CME on schizophrenia during the past few months of their professional life. The knowledge of general practitioners about signs and symptoms of schizophrenia is reasonable but they lack interventional skills. They need easily accessible specialized services for referral and regular training programmes to update their knowledge