One in seven Hongkongers has a mood disorder, say authors of HK$7m three-year survey

Family doctors should be enlisted to help diagnose people in the early stages of mental distress so symptoms can be addressed before the need for a consultation with a psychiatrist, experts say.

The authors of a three-year survey of mental health in the city have called for primary care services to be boosted to screen for at-risk patients and help ease the pressure on government psychiatric services. The results have just been submitted to the Food and Health Bureau for review. The bureau funded the HK$7 million Hong Kong Mental Morbidity Survey - the first city-wide study to examine mental health.

The team interviewed a representative sample of 5,719 men and women aged 16 to 75 between 2010 and 2013. It estimated that 13.3 per cent of the population, or one in seven, suffered from anxiety, depression or other common mood disorders - a level comparable with most developed cities globally.

Only 26 per cent sought professional help - mainly from psychiatrists - and few consulted general practitioners. More patients may have consulted doctors for physical conditions without recognising the underlying mood problems that affect their health, but the survey did not include such cases.

"Very often, medically unexplained symptoms are related to mood disorders. Patients just go for a physical check-up and not proper treatment for their mental health," said principal investigator Professor Linda Lam Chiu-wah, who chairs Chinese University's department of psychiatry.

The small proportion of people who receive treatment for common mood conditions mainly suffer from depression, anxiety or more severe conditions that impair their daily functioning, for example obsessive or panic disorders.