Community Physicians: Perceptions of Their Role in Treating Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Although many leaders of the medical profession feel that community physicians should take responsibility for the psychiatric disorders of their patients, only a little more than half of the respondents in the current study agreed. The variations in willingness to take on this role and in interest in psychiatric activities seem to be related to a number of what we have called predisposing variables, including some personal characteristics of the physicians and professional attitudes, as well as to certain enabling variables, including their knowledge of psychiatry, and, to a lesser extent, the ability of patients to pay for their services.