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Anxiety management in Australian general practice an analysis of encounters from 2006 - 2016980.68 kB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Anxiety management in Australian general practice: an analysis of encounters from 2006 - 2016
BMC Primary Care, Vol.24, pp.1-12
2023
PMID: 37542213
Abstract
Background: Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent mental health conditions managed predominantly by general practitioners (GPs). This study aimed to examine the management of anxiety by Australian GPs since the introduction of the Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and General Practitioners initiative in 2006.
Methods: We conducted secondary analysis of Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health data on GP encounters for anxiety from 2006 to 2016 (N = 28,784). We calculated point estimates and used multivariate logistic regression to explore the effect of GP and patient characteristics on rates and types of management.
Results: The management rate of anxiety increased from 2.3% of GP encounters in 2006 to 3.2% in 2016. Over the 10-year period, increases were seen in referrals to psychologists (AOR = 1.09, 95%CI = 1.07-1.11, p < .0001) and selective serotonin / serotonin-noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors (AOR = 1.05, 95%CI = 1.03-1.06, p < .0001), and benzodiazepines decreased (AOR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.92-0.95, p < .0001). Systematic differences in management were found for patient and GP characteristics, including high rates of benzodiazepines in certain groups.
Conclusions: Anxiety is accounting for more of the GP workload, year on year. GP management of anxiety has become more closely aligned with practice guidelines since 2006. However, high rates of benzodiazepine prescribing in certain groups remains a concern. Further research is needed into GP treatment decision making for anxiety.
Details
- Title
- Anxiety management in Australian general practice: an analysis of encounters from 2006 - 2016
- Authors
- Erin L. Parker (Corresponding Author) - Australian National UniversityMichelle Banfeld (Author) - Australian National UniversityDan Fassnacht (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - PsychologyChristine B. Phillips (Author) - Australian National UniversityChristopher Harrison (Author) - The University of Sydney
- Publication details
- BMC Primary Care, Vol.24, pp.1-12
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12875-023-02110-9
- ISSN
- 2731-4553
- PMID
- 37542213
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the findings of this study are available from the University of Sydney’s BEACH data access committee, but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the data custodian (CH; christopher.harrison@sydney.edu.au) upon reasonable request and with permission of the University of Sydney’s Human Ethics Committee.
- Grant note
- MRF1150698 / Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellowship; NHMRC Early Career Fellowship
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Psychology
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99743097002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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