Revisión crítica sobre los instrumentos para la evaluación psiquiátrica en atención primaria Critical revision of Mental health Assessment Tools in Primary Care

SummaryBackground. There are many instruments to use in primary care in Mental Health. However, the overall limitations found are that some instruments were developed specifically for research purposes and scales cover a limited range of symptoms and mental disorders like anxiety and depression. Scales used in clinical settings for anxiety and depressive symptoms usually assess the presence or absence of symptoms rather than give a specific diagnosis and leaves out a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders such as dementia and psychosis. For this reasons, multiple alternatives to overcome these problems have been proposed worldwide.Objective. To review in a critical way the instruments used in primary care.Materials and methods. Literatury review.Results. Among the tools developed and used are the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). Another instrument is the Global Mental Health Assessment Tool (GMHAT). This tool allows broad screening and diagnosis of mental health problems for people with little training in psychiatry and in a short time.Conclusion. Short Instruments that perform an overall assessment of the mental state are preferred over those that are specific to a single disorder.