Prevalence and Treatment Desire for Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Outpatient Clinical Practice

Background Uncertain is whether patients who present for outpatient psychiatric care seek treatment for all of their diagnosable disorders or only for the primary concern that prompted treatment initiation. The aim of the present study was to identify which psychiatric disorders motivate patients to seek treatment. Methods Three thousand eight hundred psychiatric outpatients were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. For patients with more than one disorder, the diagnoses were assigned as principal or additional according to the DSM-IV convention of whether it was the patient’s stated primary reason for presenting for treatment. For all current disorders, patients were asked if the symptoms of each diagnosed disorder were a reason (or one of the reasons) for seeking treatment. Results Of the 5846 diagnoses that were not the principal reason for seeking treatment, patients expressed a desire for treatment for 78.2%. For all disorders except substance use disorders, the majority of patients wanted treatment when the condition was an additional diagnosis. Conclusions Patients’ desire for treatment of comorbid disorders varied across disorders. Possible explanations for why patients do not wish to receive treatment for all disorders present at the time of the initial evaluation are discussed.