Introduction

Abstract

To many of us the mention of mental illness conjures up a picture of bizarre madness and large grim Victorian hospitals. And yet, in its varying forms, mental illness is widespread in the population and rarely fits this bleak picture. Goldberg and Huxley (1980) in a recent study of pathways to psychiatric care make it clear not only how prevalent such disorders are, with all their attendant misery, but also how many psychiatric illnesses pass unrecognised by family doctors and how small a minority of cases are referred to the psychiatric services.