DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i09.060

Pages: 3462-3466

Mental illness is a public health issue globally. The morbidity pattern in private clinics differ from mental hospitals. However studies are very few related to morbidity pattern of psychiatric patients attending private clinics. Hence the study is planned in this direction. study was aimed to assess the diagnostic pattern of psychiatric morbidity among patients attending a private psychiatric clinic. The study was done in a private psychiatric clinic catering OPD service in Cuddalore. All new consenting patients were included in the study. The patient’s history were collected, examined and diagnosed according to ICD-10. Of the 106 patients 56[52.8%] were males and 50[47.2%] females. More than 60% of patients were in the 15 to 45 age group. The most common psychiatric disorders were neurotic, stress related & somatoform disorders[29.2%], mood disorders[28.3%], schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders[15.1%], organic mental disorders[7.5%], substance dependence disorders[6.6%], mental retardation[3.7%], behavioral problems associated with physiological disturbances[2.8%] and impulsive & habit disorders, childhood autism, hyperkinetic disorders, epilepsy and other headache syndrome[0.94% each]. There was no gender difference in the morbidity pattern. Neurotic and mood disorders were the most common diagnosis and the morbidity pattern was quite different from mental hospitals.