SYNOPSIS The 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) were administered to 120 consecutive attenders at a general practice in Northern Italy run by a doctor who had a formal psychiatric training. The Italian versions of both the GHQ and the CIS were found to be feasible instruments for general practice studies in Italy. GHQ misclassification rates, sensitivity and specificity values are presented for different cut-off scores, a total score of 5 or more being the best discriminator between 'cases' and 'non-cases'. The prevalence of confirmed cases in this sample was 47-5%, a rate higher than those reported so far in developed and developing countries.

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SynopsisComparison between general practice attenders and community subjects with emotional distress (as measured by GHQ–12) showed that women from a general practice sample reported more social problems than those from the community. In both men and women, problems with their spouse or partner were far more likely among general practice attenders than among community probands. Furthermore, women who consulted the general practitioners could count less often on the availability of friend confidants and had more well-defined physical disorder than their community counterparts. Results from a logistic regression analysis showed that in women (but not in men) problems in the relationship with spouse or partner increased the probability of being a general practice attender more than twofold. Physical health status did not exert a significant effect either in men or in women.