Psychiatric clinics in general practice. Do they reduce admissions?

General-practice-based psychiatric clinics have increased substantially in recent years. We investigated the influence on psychiatric admissions of this style of practice in England over an 18-year period. We utilised data from a previous survey concerned with this type of work (Strathdee & Williams, 1984) and compared them with figures on psychiatric admissions. Parts of the country in which there has been greater development of general-practice-based psychiatric clinics were also those in which there has been a steeper decrease in psychiatric admissions. Further analysis showed this to be due primarily to an effect on admission of non-psychotic patients.