The case for psychological treatment centres

The government is committed to improved access to psychological therapy. How big an expansion is necessary to meet the NICE guidelines on depression and anxiety, and how should it be organised? If you have schizophrenia or bipolar depression in Britain, you will generally get specialist help from the NHS.1 But only about 1% of the British population have these terrible conditions. Many more (some 15% of us) have unipolar depression or anxiety disorders, yet if you have one of these, often crippling, conditions you are unlikely to get any specialist help at all. You can see your general practitioner, but he or she is unlikely to prescribe any treatment other than drugs.