• Line Flytkjær Virgilsen, Henry Jensen, Alina Zalounina Falborg, Anders Prior, Anette Fischer Pedersen, and Peter Vedsted.
• Research Unit for General Practice, Aarhus C, Denmark.
• Scand J Prim Health Care. 2024 Mar 1; 42 (1): 156169156-169.

ObjectivePatients with psychiatric disorders are at risk of experiencing suboptimal cancer diagnostics and treatment. This study investigates how this patient group perceives the cancer diagnostic process in general practice.DesignCross-sectional study using questionnaire and register data.SettingGeneral practice in Denmark.SubjectsPatients diagnosed with cancer in late 2016 completed a questionnaire about their experiences with their general practitioner (GP) in the cancer diagnostic process (n = 3411). Information on pre-existing psychiatric disorders was obtained from register data on psychiatric hospital contacts and primary care treated psychiatric disorders through psychotropic medications. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between psychiatric disorders and the patients' experiences.Main Outcome MeasuresPatients' experiences, including cancer worry, feeling being taken seriously, and the perceived time between booking an appointment and the first GP consultation.[Box: see text].ResultsA total of 13% of patients had an indication of a psychiatric disorder. This group more often perceived the time interval as too short between the first booking of a consultation and the first GP consultation. Patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders were more likely to worry about cancer at the first presentation and to share this concern with their GP compared with patients without psychiatric disorders. We observed no statistically significant association between patients with psychiatric disorders and perceiving the waiting time to referral from general practice, being taken seriously, trust in the GP's abilities, and the patients' knowledge of the process following the GP referral.ConclusionThe patients' experiences with the cancer diagnostic process in general practice did not vary largely between patients with and without psychiatric disorders. Worrying about cancer may be a particular concern for patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders.

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