In this study, 96 frequent attender patients in primary care were compared with 466 other primary care patients. The focus was on psychiatric morbidity, current and former psychiatric treatment, and self-perceived need for treatment. The prevalence of psychiatric illness was much greater among frequent attender patients than other patients (54.0% vs. 24.0%, p < 0.001), and subclinical symptoms were common in both groups (34.0% vs. 43.2%). Depression and anxiety were the most common clinical entities among frequent attender patients. However, very few patients had psychiatric treatment and the self-perceived need for treatment was low. The significance of these findings is discussed in the paper.