Compara？？o da assistência em saúde mental em unidades básicas de saúde com ou sem equipe do Programa de Saúde da Família

introduction: the objective of this study was to compare the profile of mental health assistance provided at primary care units (pcus) with and without a family health program (fhp) team. method: observational study evaluating patients referred by pcus located in the coverage area of a specialized mental health institution between april 2003 and march 2006. results: the pcu with a fhp team presented better global standards for data recording, higher exclusive participation of medical doctors on their referral to specialists (p = 0.000), lower capacity of patient retention (p = 0.099), higher rates of treatment dropout in secondary level (p = 0.060), and lower percentage of counter-referral by the specialized team (p = 0.028). the overall index of diagnostic agreement was similar for both types of pcu model, with a reasonable level of agreement (kappa index of 44.5 and 43.0%, respectively, for pcus with and without a fhp team). conclusion: the pcu with a fhp team did not present results compatible with what would be expected based on its hypothetically better quality.