Developing a clinical prediction rule for repeated consultations with functional somatic symptoms in primary care: a cohort study.

Objectives: Patients who present in primary care with chronic functional somatic symptoms (FSS) have reduced quality of life and increased health care costs. Recognising these early is a challenge. The aim is to develop and internally validate a clinical prediction rule for repeated consultations with FSS.

Long-term antidepressant use: a qualitative study on perspectives of patients and GPs in primary care.

Background: Antidepressant use is often prolonged in patients with anxiety and/or depressive disorder(s) compared with recommendations in treatment guidelines to discontinue after sustained remission.

Aim: To unravel the motivations of patients and GPs causing long-term antidepressant use and to gain insight into possibilities to prevent unnecessary long-term use.

Design And Setting: Qualitative study using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with patients and GPs in the Netherlands.

Use of general practice services 5 years after an episode of mental illness: case-control study using electronic records.

Background: Depression, anxiety, and emotional distress occur frequently and are usually treated in general practice. Little has been reported about the long-term course of these conditions and the long-term use of medical services.

Aim: To follow up patients with depression, anxiety, and emotional distress in general practice for 5 years and examine the length and number of index episodes, prescribing behaviour, and the use of services in general practice.

The course of untreated anxiety and depression, and determinants of poor one-year outcome: a one-year cohort study.

Background: Little is known about the course and outcome of untreated anxiety and depression in patients with and without a self-perceived need for care. The aim of the present study was to examine the one-year course of untreated anxiety and depression, and to determine predictors of a poor outcome.

Method: Baseline and one-year follow-up data were used of 594 primary care patients with current anxiety or depressive disorders at baseline (established by the Composite Interview Diagnostic Instrument (CIDI)), from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA).