In the psychiatric setting, as far as anxiety and disorders of the mood are considered, there is a widespread and persisting delay in the initiation of an appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic path, which still leaves the patient with an unnecessary reduced quality of life. A prolonged duration of untreated illness is also associated with a worse outcome when an appropriate care is finally started for these patients.

Although in the recent years the disease awareness for mental illness has significantly increased among primary care and non-psychiatric physicians, there is a persistent latency in the process, with patients left undiagnosed and untreated for too long. Failing in appropriate psychiatric referral or missing a prompt recognition of alert signs and symptoms is a diffuse experience in the primary care setting, which can even be more relevant and with more serious consequences for patients with concomitant diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

With such a problem still affecting the overall patient access to mental illness diagnosis and treatment, there still a need for new ideas, medical education for non-psychiatricians and for a continuation of the never-ending fight against the stigma of mental illness which is too often refraining patients and caregivers from a diffuse and regular consultation with the appropriate specialist.