NICE guideline on common mental health disorders

25 May 2011

NICE has published a guideline to improve identification, assessment, treatment and referral of common mental health disorders.

NICE has published guideline to improve identification, assessment, treatment and referral of common mental health disorders. Dr Matthew Ridd, GP and Lecturer in Primary Health Care, was a member of the guideline development group that helped produce the guidance.

Common mental health disorders can affect up to 15% of the population at any one time. They include depression, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety disorder.

This new NICE draws on existing NICE guidelines and makes new recommendations on how patients are assessed, and when and how they are referred to other services for treatment. More more information, see the NICE website.