Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled trials and pre-test post-test designs were eligible for inclusion in the review.
Specific interventions included in the review
Studies of interventions designed to improve the recognition and/or management of one or more mental disorders in the primary care setting were eligible for inclusion. The included interventions were divided into three categories:
predisposing (simple educational strategies such as lectures, workshops, courses, self-study materials, single academic detailing visits);
enabling (interventions aimed at improving provider behaviour at the time of the visit, such as giving feedback of psychiatric screening results to clinicians, providing tools, allowing for longer clinic visits or extra follow-up appointments, improving access to mental health specialists, supervision of real patients); and
reinforcement (providing feedback on provider's performance, academic detailing).
Reference standard test against which the new test was compared
This was a review relating to methods of diagnosis, but it was not a review of diagnostic accuracy studies. No reference standard was therefore used.
Participants included in the review
The interventions were aimed at primary care providers. Most of the included studies were carried out in the USA or the UK.
Outcomes assessed in the review
To be included in the review, the studies had to report one of the following outcomes: provider knowledge, attitudes or skills; process of care (e.g. diagnostic rates or treatment actions); or clinical outcomes (e.g. symptom severity, functional status, health care costs, satisfaction with care).
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
Two reviewers independently evaluated titles and abstracts and reached consensus on which articles to retrieve.