Factors influencing care seeking for a self-defined worst XXXX attack.

@entity1 @entity4697
OBJECTIVE: Only 60 percent of @entity1 who experience @entity4697 attacks seek treatment for them, many at the emergency department. The author documented care-seeking behaviors among @entity1 living in the community who had experienced @entity4697 attacks and studied determinants of care seeking. METHODS: In-depth structured interviews were conducted with 97 randomly selected community-dwelling adults who met DSM-III-R criteria for @entity4697 attacks. @entity1 were asked whether they had contemplated using or had actually used medical, alternative, and family sources of care when they had experienced their worst attack. RESULTS: Seventy-seven @entity1 (79 percent) had considered using a general medical or mental health site when they experienced their worst attack. Of these, 50 (52 percent) had actually used such a site. General medical sites were contemplated more often (72 percent of @entity1 ) than mental health sites (27 percent), particularly emergency departments (43 percent) and family physicians' offices (34 percent). Other sources, such as friends or family members, alternative sites, and self-treatment, were contemplated less often. Once contemplated, certain sources were readily used, such as ambulances, family members, and self-treatment. Several factors were significantly associated with whether a @entity1 contemplated seeking care: access or barriers to treatment, perception of symptoms and of the reasons for the @entity4697 attack, and family-related variables. CONCLUSIONS: Contemplation and use of a mental health site after a @entity4697 attack was rare among the @entity1 in this study. Further study of determinants of care seeking may help explain why @entity1 who experience @entity4697 attacks fail to seek treatment or seek treatment from non-mental health sources.
