Frequency and demographic characteristics of mental disorders in patients admitted in psychiatry ward, an observational study in a tertiary care hospital, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

In recent times, mental disorders have become a highly concerned issue in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders is on the rise owing to poverty, unemployment, injustice, job stresses, social disputes, lack of security and terrorism. High rates of depression and anxiety are reported in many studies. The number of psychiatrists per total population is alarmingly low, in addition, most of them belong to urban areas while the majority of the population lives in rural areas.

Objective: The objective of this research is to find out about the frequency of admitted patients in the psychiatry ward of a tertiary care hospital-based on ICD-10 classification and to compare it with demographic characteristics.

Methods: It was an observational study that took place in the psychiatry ward at Services Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. The estimated sample size was 112 cases that were admitted in the psychiatry ward and the study duration was about 4 months from January 2019 to April 2019.

Results:The study showed that the majority of the cases belonged to the group Schizophrenia, Schizotypal and Delusional Disorders (F20-29) with 29% cases, followed by Mood Affective Disorders (F30-39) with 27% cases and Neurotic, Stress-related and Somatoform disorders (F40-49) with 20% cases. More studies of this nature are required to prevent psychiatric disorders which can be done by properly applying the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare and promoting the mental and behavioral health programs.

Keywords: Mental disorders, Schizophrenia, Mood Affective Disorders, Tertiary-care hospital, Patients