Patterns of mental health morbidity

ABSTRACT

A retrospective study was conducted on patients attending a community psychiatric clinic to assess the mental health morbidity. Design: A retrospective type study. Place and Duration of Study The study was conducted in a community psychiatric clinic, located in the central district of Karachi, during the period 1998-2000. Subjects and One thousand four hundred and thirty patients attending a community psychiatric clinic were included in the study. A comprehensive proforma was developed to ascertain the psychiatric diagnosis, relevant management and prognosis along with brief demographic profile and a comparative trend in diagnosis was recorded. The results of the study showed high prevalence of various types of mental disorders like depression 51.9%, anxiety neurosis 5.9%, schizophrenia 6.2%, substance abuse 1.9%, seizure disorder 17.6%, behavioral disorder 4.2%, personality disorder 0.8%, psychosomatic disorder 8.9%, mania/hypomania 3.9%, sexual disorder 3.2%, mental retardation 3.3%, dementia 2.3%, unspecified psychosis 1.9% and obsessive-compulsive disorder 2.7%. It was concluded that there is a high mental health morbidity among patients presented to psychiatric clinic in District Central which implies the high prevalence of mental disorders in Karachi. Moreover, the study also stresses the need to replicate this type of study on national level and conduct more studies for comparison