Do primary care patients accept psychological treatments?

Most individuals seeking care for psychological distress go to primary care physicians rather than to mental health professionals. Many have symptoms of distress that do not meet criteria for psychiatric disorders; pharmacotherapies are generally not available for these subsyndromal problems. Preliminary studies suggest that psychosocial therapies may be useful. The aim of this paper was to learn whether medical patients would accept psychological treatments for 1) depression, an explicit psychopathology; 2) stress, a nonpathological, but psychological, problem; and 3) medical problems, a nonpsychological issue. Respondents were 131 primary care patients at San Francisco General Hospital, a public sector hospital. The results show that most of the patients (107 of 131) found psychological interventions acceptable. In addition, the vast majority were willing to have the treatments focus on psychological issues such as depression and stress. This study demonstrates that primary care patients find psychological interventions acceptable.