To our former dissertation about the psychopathological determinants of illness-, and help-seeking behaviour we add in this paper a social-psychological elaboration of the matter.

Taking the line of Lazarus we examined in a community based sample of PSE respondents (ID >= 2) the relation between `locus of control' and `social support' on the one hand and seeking professional help for psychiatric symptoms on the other.

People who sought no help, were significantly more `intern oriented and experienced more social support than did the help-seekers. Discriminant analysis showed that social support was the most inportant factor in the help-seeking process of the respondents, when we controlled for ID-level, insight, social dysfunction and symptom distress.

This relationship was tested for the PSE-cases, (ID >= 5) from whom we had obtained re-interview information about their help-seeking behaviour, one, two and six months later. Cases who consulted only their general practitioner were more `intern' onriented than those who sought more specialised care. We found no difference between them in social support, psychopathological class, ID-level, insight, social dysfunction, symptom distress, or time gone by since the most important symptom was experienced.