Changes in psychological diagnosis and prescription in a practice employing a counsellor.

This study investigated the effect on consultation rates and psychotropic drug prescribing of employing a counsellor in a general practice. No major change was detected in the number of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs or the consultation rates during the years that counselling was available. An increase in the number of psychotropic drug prescriptions in the year after counselling was accounted for by a very small number of patients. Three years after counselling more than three-quarters of the patients who had been counselled were receiving no medical attention for psychiatric problems. This may either reflect the effect of counselling over a longer period or the natural history of the problems.