The impact of service wait times on General Practitioners' treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety

Background: General Practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety, but their capacity to provide effective care may be compromised by long wait times. Aim: To examine the treatments and recommendations of GPs for adolescent patients with depression and/or anxiety in Australia, their referral practices to specialist care and estimated wait times for these, and the perceived impact of long wait times on GPs, their patients and their treatment. Design, Setting and Methods: An online survey of 192 GPs in Australia who treated adolescents (12 to 17 years old) with depression and/or anxiety. Results: GPs frequently referred adolescents with depression and/or anxiety to psychologists. The estimated wait time for psychologists (M: 57 days, SD: 47.9) was four times the proposed acceptable wait time (M: 16.7 days, SD: 27.0). The frequency of medication prescribing almost doubled during the wait time when compared to routine practice (14.6% versus 8.3%, respectively). Almost all GPs (81.8%) increased their level of care due to long wait times but had limited training in youth mental health and knowledge on appropriate strategies to do so effectively. Conclusion: The findings signify the discrepancies between the preferences of GPs for treatment availability in Australia and what they see as the experience for many adolescents with depression and/or anxiety who are referred to specialist care. Greater training, improved communication between referrer and referred services, and digital interventions may help GPs to reduce the negative impacts of long wait times on their adolescent patients.