Most adults want to talk about both mental and physical health with PCPs

Key takeaways:

• Women especially preferred to talk about both mental and physical health with their PCP.
• More than half of adults said screening for anxiety and depression in primary care is very important.

Seven in 10 adults would prefer to be asked about both their mental and physical health during visits with their primary care providers, according to results from a recent survey.

The findings also revealed that three-quarters of women expressed interest in having both mental and physical health discussions during primary care visits.

“Americans are particularly open to addressing mental health with their primary care doctors and they want them to do more than just [talk] about the issues, they want treatment,” Timothy Lash, president of West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit organization aimed at aging and health care, told Healio. “This openness to discussion and treatment with a primary care doctor initially may be easier for people than for it to take place in a psychiatrist’s office.”

The treatment of mental health in primary care has become commonplace in the last several years, with one study showing that the proportion of primary care visits addressing mental health concerns rose by nearly 50% from 2006 to 2018.

This growth also comes as about 58.7 million adults reported some type of mental illness in 2023.

Overall, 2,389 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older responded to the survey, conducted by West Health Policy Center and Gallup.

Most adults OK with bringing up mental health

The findings showed that 76% of women would prefer that a PCP ask them about both mental and physical health concerns vs. 65% of men.

Overall, 66% of respondents said a PCP has asked them about their mental health, whereas 32% said they have never been asked. Women (71%) more frequently reported having been asked about mental health compared with men (60%).

Among adults that would prefer to be asked about both types of health concerns, 75% said a PCP asked them about their mental health, whereas 24% have not been asked.

Meanwhile, 45% of participants who would only prefer to talk about physical health said they were asked about mental health.

Ultimately, 41% of participants reported they were very comfortable bringing up mental health care concerns with a PCP, whereas one-third responded as somewhat comfortable bringing up mental health.

Men and women expressed similar comfort bringing up mental health concerns with their providers.

More than half said integrated health care is important

The survey results also revealed that 51% of respondents said it is very important that PCPs screen for anxiety and depression, whereas even more said it is very important that these physicians treat patients themselves for these conditions or refer patients to another provider (57% each).

More women (61%) viewed screening for anxiety and depression as being very important vs. men (40%), and likelier to say it is important that PCPs treat the conditions themselves or make a referral.

The need for integrated health care has grown as more families face mental health issues. More than half (53%) of adults said someone in their household or a close family member has been diagnosed with a mental health condition, and among those people, 20% and 39% said the condition negatively affects their family’s or household’s daily life “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” respectively.

However, there remain barriers when it comes to integrating mental health care into routine care settings.

“Up to 75% of primary care visits include mental or behavioral health components, but resources are lacking,” Lash told Healio. “This causes tremendous frustration among both patients and providers, which integration may improve along with health outcomes.”