Psychiatric morbidity in primary health care patients

ABSTRACT

This work was carried out to determine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among patients attending primary healthcare clinics in one of the Gulf countries. A random sample of 274 primary healthcare patients was surveyed using the general health questionnaire [GHQ] and semi-structured clinical interview. According to GHQ, 37.2% of patients visiting primary healthcare clinics had psychiatric symptoms more than 7 degrees on the GHQ. However, when those patients were interviewed by the semi- structured clinical interview [SCIV] using DSM-IV criteria, the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity decreased to 25.5%. The commonest psychiatric disorders were somatoform disorders [17.5%], anxiety disorders [13.7%], mood disorders [10.7%] and adjustment disorders [9.8%]. The psychiatric morbidity was more common among females [42%] and the age group from 16 to 25 years [40%]. It was concluded that psychiatric morbidity is common among the primary healthcare patients, especially somatoform, anxiety, mood disorders and adjustment disorders