תוצאת חיפוש

Characteristics of Israeli Primary Health Care Physicians who Treat Depression

Jonathan Rabinowitz, Dina Feldman, Revital Gross, Wienka Boerma

Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan; Israel Ministry of Health; JDC-Brookdale Institute, Jerusalem; and Netherlands Institute of Primary Health Care (NIVEL)

Primary health care physicians have a pivotal role in treating mental health problems. We determined the proportion of primary care physicians in Israel who treat depression and their characteristics. The study was based on a stratified national random sample of primary care physicians (n677, response rate 78%). From these physicians' reports 22% always treat depression, 36.6% usually, 28.6% sometimes, and 12.6% never. Based on a logistic regression model the physicians who always or usually treated depression were distinguished from the other physicians by their treating more medical conditions on their own, seeing themselves as having more first contact for psychosocial problems, having frequent contact with social workers and specializing in family medicine. Primary health care physicians play a major role in treating depression on their own. This raises new questions about how they treat depression themselves, and under what circumstances they treat or refer to a specialist.

Primary Care Physicians in Israel Compared with European Countries

P. Shvartzman, R. Gross, H. Tabenkin, D. Yuval, M. Grinshtein, B. Wienka

Dept. of Family Medicine, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheba;

Brookdale Institute, Jerusalem; and Nivel Institute, Maastricht, the Netherlands

This study compares Israeli primary care physicians with those of European countries. In Israel a larger proportion of those in primary care are women. The Israeli physicians see many patients a day, but almost never make home visits. They also report for work the fewest hours a day, but spend 21 hours a month in continuous medical education. (more than Europeans?) The Israeli primary care physician scores high in screening for breast cancer and blood cholesterol level, but very low in the fields of minor surgery and alcohol and smoking prevention, contraception, nutrition counseling and normal pregnancy follow-up. Residency training and education may be inadequate, and more emphasis has to be put on the health system and recognizing environmental influences.