Obituary: David Goldberg, psychiatrist

Sir David Goldberg’s gift to medicine was the General Health Questionnaire, a mental health-screening instrument which was devised as a research tool and ended up being used as a diagnostic test the world over. Born in London, Sir David trained in both medicine and psychiatry, finishing his clinical training at St Thomas’ Hospital. He steadily acquired an international reputation in social psychiatry, epidemiology and improvements in clinical training and 40 years later retired from King’s College London as Emeritus Prof of psychiatry. In the 1960’s Sir David became fascinated with how general practitioners coped with their patients’ psychological problems and he devised what is now the GHQ. Cleverly designed to be culture-neutral, it could also be tailored to certain communities, making its rapid international acceptance easier. Regarded as a pioneer in primary care psychiatry, he became Sir David in 1997 and in 2009 he was granted the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Lifetime Achievement Award. He died on September 5 aged 90. — Agencies