Non-Drug Interventions for Common Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Common mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety, affect up to 15% of the population at any one time. The most common method used to manage common mental health disorders in primary care has been with psychotropic medications despite the fact that non-pharmacological treatments are often preferred by patients and have been shown to be effective. The primary care setting is the point of entry for most people into the health system. Mental health presentations most frequently encountered by family doctors include generic psychosocial distress, grief, bereavement, sub-threshold mood symptoms, reactive disorders, mild to moderate unipolar depressive disorders and anxiety disorders, which can be of sufficient severity to impair daily functioning or health-related quality of life. The chapter aims to help raise awareness of the role of non-drug interventions in managing common mental health disorders, and to encourage family doctors to incorporate the evidence-based treatments into their routine practice.