Table 2.

The general practitioner’s causality assessment and management of psychological stress

GP assessed causes of stress		Work	Family	Disease	Other	Unknown
Number of patients (groups are not exclusive)		542	303	86	94	34
The patients’ mean age in years		45	43	45	41	45
Patients with female sex		74%↑	74%	64%	63%↓	48%↓
Medication	Antidepressants	29%	32%	50%↑	43%↑	36%
	Benzodiazepines or Z-drugs	7%	7%	12%	13%	12%
	Antipsychotics	3%	2%	10%↑	4%	3%
	None of the above	66%	62%	40%↓	50%	49%
Period of sick-leave due to the stress		62%↑	43%↓	52%	43%	30%↓
Counselling in general practice		51%	52%	53%	53%	45%
Referred to psychologist		37%↓	45%↑	42%	35%	36%
Referred to dpt. of occupational medicine		9%↑	3%↓	3%↓	2%↓	1%↓
Reported to OSHA		9%↑	5%↓	3%↓	3%↓	0%↓
Participated in municipality stress program		9%↑	8%	8%	7%	3%↓

The arrows indicate where the proportions were significantly (age- and sex-adjusted p < 0.05) higher^↑or lower^↓if the cause of stress was assessed to be present compared to if not. OSHA, Occupational Safety- and Health-Administration