The Future of Psychiatry in General Practice

which arise over any medical problem; most illnesses are accompanied by anxiety. In specifically psychiatric illnesses the general practitioner has usually been the first helper to be approached; if the illness has presented itself in a physical way he has sometimes been the only person to go to; thus he has always dealt with psychosomatic illnesses, which are not a new development in this century. He has been called in for psychiatric emergencies because he is usually the nearest available helper. He has, in fact, needed to cope at one time or another with almost every psychiatric problem; this he has done sometimes well, sometimes badly and often without understanding precisely what he was doing.