ABSTRACT

Background: Psychiatric disorders are the major causes of disability worldwide.  Due to cultural differences, the patterns of mental disorders vary globally and there is need to study the patterns of psychiatric disorders in our region.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to know the pattern of various psychiatric morbidities as well as socio demographic characteristics of patients attending out-patient department (OPD) at Iftikhar Psychiatric Hospital, Peshawar.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted at Iftikhar Psychiatric Hospital, Peshawar from 1^st June 2020 to 31^st January 2021. During this period, a total of 150 patients were recruited through non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Data was collected for variables like gender, age, marital status, urban/rural background, employment status and psychiatric diagnosis. For the variables of continuous type like age, mean and standard deviation were calculated.  Diagnosis was made using ICD-10 diagnostic classification system. All the variables were presented as frequencies and %ages. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20.

Conclusion: Male predominance was observed in the study. Maximum numbers of psychiatric patients were in the age range from 18-40 years. Majority of the study participants were married, employed and belonged to urban background  Regarding psychiatric morbidities, the most common were neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders (38%) followed by mood disorders (28.66 %)., schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders (17.33%) and substance misuse disorders (10%).   

Keywords: ICD-10; Psychiatric morbidity; out-patient department