Patient Factors Associated with Receipt of Psychological and Pharmacological Treatments Among Individuals with Common Mental Disorders in a Swedish Primary Care Setting

Background: Psychological and pharmacological therapies are the recommended first-line treatments for common mental disorders (CMDs) but may not be universally accessible or utilised.

Aims: To determine the extent to which primary care patients with CMDs receive treatment and the impact of sociodemographic, work-related and clinical factors on treatment receipt.

Method: National registers were used to identify all Stockholm County residents aged 19-64 years who had received at least one CMD diagnosis (depression, anxiety, stress-related) in primary care between 2014 and 2018. Individuals were followed from the date of their first observed CMD diagnosis until the end of 2019 to determine treatment receipt. Associations between patient factors and treatment group were examined using multinomial logistic regression.

Results: Among 223 271 individuals with CMDs, 30.6% received pharmacotherapy only, 16.5% received psychological therapy only, 43.1% received both and 9.8% had no treatment. The odds of receiving any treatment were lower among males (odds ratio (OR) range = 0.76 to 0.92, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.95), individuals born outside of Sweden (OR range = 0.67 to 0.93, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.99) and those with stress-related disorders only (OR range = 0.21 to 0.51, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.53). Among the patient factors examined, CMD diagnostic group, prior treatment in secondary psychiatric care and age made the largest contributions to the model (R difference: 16.05%, 1.72% and 1.61%, respectively).

Conclusions: Although over 90% of primary care patients with CMDs received pharmacological and/or psychological therapy, specific patient groups were less likely to receive treatment.