ABSTRACT
Background: Nearly 50% of the aged have some physical ailment and are in need of active health care. Geriatric psychiatry is a sub-specialty of psychiatry, which deals with psychopathology occurring in the elderly and the various aetiological factors which cause the mental disorders in old age. Method: This is a descriptive study with sampling in a tertiary centre where the diagnoses were made based on the tenth edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD- 10) and were evaluated for sociodemographic and clinical variables as well as general medical conditions. Results: Mean age of the patients was 69.81 years, male constituted 73.58% and female 26.42%, Hindu were 56.60% and Islam 43.40%. Mean duration of stay in psychiatry ward was 5.7 days. 77.36% of patients were discharged on advice, 15.09% were transferred to another department, 1.89% absconded, 1.89% referred to another hospital and 3.77% referred to another department. 9.62% patients had general medical conditions alone and 40.38% had psychiatric disorders alone while 50% had combined psychiatric disorders with general medical conditions. 42.31% patients had organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders; 3.85% had mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use; 26.92% had schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders; 28.85% had mood [affective] disorders; 5.77% patients had neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders. Conclusion: Within the limitations of nongeneralizability of findings, present study throws light in important areas of geriatric mental health including general medical conditions.