Background: There has been no study carried out to assess health service utilization by people with common mental disorder (CMD) in Malawi.

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate health service utilization patterns of patients with CMD in primary health care (PHC) clinics.

Methods: The study was conducted in two PHC clinics in one of the 28 districts in Malawi. Face-to-face interviews with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) were conducted in a sample of 323 PHC attendees aged 18 years and older who attended the PHC clinics for any reason.

Results: The prevalence of probable CMD in the sample was 20.1%. People with probable CMD had a higher mean number of health facility visits in the previous three months compared to those without probable CMD (1.6 vs 1.19, p = .02).

Conclusion: The study reveals high utilization of health services for people with CMD in the PHC setting. There is a need for PHC workers to improve skills in diagnosing patients with CMD to make PHC services more effective by reducing re-attendance and improving patient outcomes.