ABSTRACT
Nowadays the burden of psychiatric disorders has been identified in developed countries by screening questionnaires and standard clinical interviews at a high level, but there has been conducted few investigation to study the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in our country, comprehensively. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the individuals of 18 years and over in urban and rural areas of Kerman province.This study was a cross-sectional survey in year 2001. This was a part of national epidemiological study of psychiatric disorders. In this survey 876 individuals were selected through randomized systematic and clustered sampling methods from the existing families in Kerman and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia [SADS] questionnaire were completed by the clinical psychologist. The diagnosis of the disorders was based on DSM-1V classification criteria. The results of the study showed that the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Kerman province was 19.62% which was 25.48% in the women and 13.50% in men. The anxiety and mood disorders respectively with 8.33% and 7.19% had the higher prevalence in the province. The prevalence of psychotic disorders in this study was 0.46%, neurocognitive disorders 1.93% and dissociative disorders 1.71%. In the group of mood disorders, major depression with 5.59% and in the group of anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder with 2.85% had the higher prevalence. This study showed that 13.93% of individuals that were studied suffered at least from one of the psychiatric disorders. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among the women in this province was 17.67%, age group of 66 years and above 29.82%, widows 33.33%, residents of villages 16.09%, illiterate individuals 17.57% and among the retired individuals was 29.03% and were more than the individuals in other groups.Being aware of this matter reveals the responsibility of the health policy makers and programmers, prevention, treatment and medical education more than before in relation to preparing application and executive plans in Kerman province for mental health