To study patients’ preferences and evaluation of treatment and its consequences for outcome.

Data come from 723 primary care patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of anxiety disorder and/or affective disorder. Patients were included in a primary care setting. During inclusion, patients’ psychiatric status was assessed with the CIDI, patients preferences for treatment were measured by the Perceived Need for Care Questionnaire and their evaluation of current treatment was assessed by the Quality of Care through the Eyes of the patient scale, designed for this study. Severity of depression and anxiety symptoms was assessed by the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (IDS) respectively the Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI). After one year, these instruments were assessed again.

Patients preferences and evaluation of care were related: patients whose preferences were met had a more positive evaluation of the psychiatric competence of the GP, GP's patient-centeredness, GP's attitude towards the patient, the quality of self help advices and the quality of information. However, patients whose preferences for treatment were met, showed no greater improvement after one year, compared with those whose preferences were only partly or not met. On the other hand, patients who evaluated different aspects of GPs care positively showed more improvement after one year than patients who evaluated these aspect neutral or negatively.

The “match” between provider (GP) and patient appears to be more important than the content of interventions and patients’ preferences regarding these interventions.