Common mental health disorders : the NICE guideline on identification and pathways to care

Up to 15%of the population may be affected by common mental health disorders at any onetime and these can be associated with considerable long-term disability.

The commonmental health disorders covered here are depression, generalised anxietydisorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumaticstress disorder.

The guideline is aimed at primary care practitioners, managersand commissioners. The vastmajority of depressive and anxiety disorders that are diagnosed are treated inprimary care, but recognition of anxiety disorders, in particular, is poor.

Thefocus of this guideline is to improve access to services and recognition ofcommon mental health disorders in adults, and provide advice on the principlesthat need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local carepathways. Although separate full NICEguidelines already exist for the management of most of these disorders, the importance anduniqueness of this book is in bringing together treatment and referral advicefrom the existing guidelines and combining it with new recommendations on access,identification, and developing care pathways.

A new development method wasformulated specifically for this guideline and this is explained. All theevidence on which the recommendations were based, including the characteristicsof studies, are on an accompanying CD-ROM. NICE Mental Health GuidelinesThese guidelines from NICE set out clear recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for health care professionals on how to work with and implement physical, psychological and service-level interventions for people with various mental health conditions.