Psychiatric Screeners in Primary Care: Cutting Through the Noise

Get more high-yield learning on psychiatric management in primary care and outpatient practice at collaborative-psychiatry.org. In this high-yield episode, we break down five psychiatric screeners every primary care provider should have in their toolbox: the PHQ-9, GAD-7, C-SSRS, Rapid Mood Screener, and Maclean Screening Instrument for BPD. You'll learn when and how to use each screener to streamline your workflow, sharpen your diagnostic thinking, and navigate complex mental health presentations. Whether you're managing depression, anxiety, suicidality, bipolar disorder, or borderline traits, these tools can help you focus your assessment and guide smarter treatment decisions--without adding to your cognitive load or taxing your time. For access to the Show Notes as well as the downloadable clinical references and patients handouts associated with this episode, visit the Episode Page. There you will find: Direct links to all screeners discussed in this episode A quick-reference chart reviewing the most helpful psychiatric self-report screeners for general use in primary care A flow chart describing how and when to use psychiatric screeners in your clinical workflow A quick-reference chart describing a case-based approach to use of these screeners A quick-reference tool to assist in differentiating Bipolar Disorder from Borderline Personality Disorder, including questions you can use to guide the process. For a deep dive on managing antidepressants and treating depression in primary care, check out our Audio Course on Managing Depression in Primary Care. Learning Objectives By the end of this episode, you'll be able to: Identify a go-to psychiatric screener for depression, anxiety, suicidality, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder in primary care. Determine when to use each screener—before, during, or between visits—to streamline your workflow. Apply targeted screening to help distinguish between complex conditions such as bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.