Anxiety and Depression in Primary Care: International Perspectives

This book provides practical information about depression and anxiety in primary care, with a focus on the approach in different countries and incorporating global ranges/prevalence, risk factors and health burden including that associated with COVID-19 and its pandemic.

To ensure the challenges of a wide international primary care community are reflected fully, authors from different world regions – Africa, Asia Pacific, East Mediterranean, Europe, IberoAmericana-CIMF, North America and South Asia – have co-contributed to individual chapters on the detection and management of depression and anxiety in primary care in their own countries, including the screening tools used, how widely these tools are adopted and by whom, and current policies. As well as the medical model, it also presents the alternative viewpoint that feeling low or anxious is part of the human condition and the attention should be on supporting people in their journey through life, struggling to deal with the mainly social challenges they meet, rather than defining these problems as disorders or diseases requiring identification and treatment.

• Explores the instruments used for the detection of depression and anxiety in primary care in various countries, and why and how these instruments are being used
• Describes the pharmaceutical and non-drug interventions for treating depression and anxiety in primary care and compares the similarities and differences in detecting and managing depression and anxiety in primary care among different countries
• Includes in-depth regional examples of how screening tools are used in practice and how policies can be established in the management of depression and anxiety in primary care
• Concludes with lessons learned from various countries and from different stakeholders with clear advice on what to do and, importantly, what not to do

Addressing primary care detection and management of mental health issues across the globe, the book will be an invaluable practical aid for family medicine practitioners and the wider primary and community care teams and a useful reference for those involved in policy setting at regional and national levels including ministries of health.