PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 442 - 13 Dec 2003

■ A large majority of the Singaporean population donot use psychiatric healthcare services, say researchersfrom that country. They derived population prevalenceestimates using 1996 questionnaire data for a stratifiedrandom sample of 2947 Chinese (n = 1129), Malay(1012) or Indian individuals aged 13–64 years. Only2.6% of the general population actually usedpsychiatric services, and although an estimated 16.9%of the population were experiencing psychologicaldistress – as determined by high scores on the 28-itemGeneral Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) – only 5.9%sought professional help. Significant predictors ofpsychiatric service use included attitude towardprofessional help, high GHQ-28 score and Malayethnicity.Ng TP, et al. Preference, need and utilization of mental health services,Singapore National Mental Health survey. Australian and New Zealand Journalof Psychiatry 37: 613-619, No. 5, Oct 2003 800925365

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 13 Dec 2003 No. 4421173-5503/10/0442-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved