Psychiatric Morbidity in a Military General Practice

Abstract

The General Health Questionnaire of Goldberg was used as an indicator of morbidity in three groups of a Military General Practice in British Army of the Rhine. Group 1 consisted of 299 service and civilian consecutive new attenders at the General Practice. Group 2 of 80 attenders for routine medical examination and Group 3 of a community sample of 446 soldiers from units in the practice area. Patients presenting for consultation at the practice were shown to have higher GHQ scores and percentage positive scores than the community sample, which in turn showed higher mean scores than those referred to the practice as non-complainants for routine medical examination. Service personnel showed lower mean scores than dependants or civilians. There were significant differences in scores between groups by rank in soldier attenders, those of junior non-commissioned officer rank having lower mean scores and lower percentage high scores than others.