Based on our experience, family physicians can perform two thirds of these diagnostic assessments during 15 minutes of focused interviewing. More complex cases, such as patients with cognitive disruption or multiple manifestations of anxiety, may take longer to diagnose and generally need more specialized care or referral. If required, a patient could be asked back for a 1 half-hour session later in the day or week.
Taking care of ourselves
Despite the importance of the emotional system in medicine, medical curricula generally fail to provide sufficient education in this area. At the same time, up to half of our own ranks report emotional burnout.31 Even with the lack of mainstream medical teaching about emotions and health, it behooves us to learn what we can about the emotional system as it applies to the patient and to ourselves in relation to these most challenging problems. Focused seminars, peer case review, select reading, and videotape training can all help in this educational process.32
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the many colleagues who reviewed and commented on this manuscript. This work is supported by Dalhousie University, Capital Health and the Nova Scotia Department of Health.
Correspondence Allan Abbass, MD, FRCPC, Associate Professor and Director of Education, Psychiatry, Director, Center for Emotions and Health, 8th Floor, Abbie J. Lane Memorial Building, Halifax, NS B3H 2E2, Canada. E-mail: allan.abbass@dal.ca.
