We have extreme scarcity of mental health services to children & adolescents. Because of ignorance, myths & misconceptions regarding mental illness many parents and their caretakers hesitate to seek help from mental health profession. Child and adolescent mental problems are increasing in frequency, though variable in type among the South Asian and Western population. A variety of psychiatric manifestations can be seen in children and adolescent below the age of 19 years. This study aims to examine the socio-demographic, morbidity profiles, & clinical correlates of child & adolescent patients attending the psychiatry out-patient department Khaja Banda Nawaz Institute of Medical Sciences over a 1year period. It is a retrospective case record analysis of all child & adolescent patients attending the psychiatry out-patient department between Jan-Dec 2011 in KBNIMS, Kalaburgi, India. Eight hundred and seventy six cases attending the Out patientdepartment were analyzed. Females comprise 508(58%) & males comprise 368(42%) and the mean age of the patients was (15.68 & elusmn;3.73 years). Age range is (4–19 years). Most of the patients (67.0%) were from 16–19 years group. Cases from urban areas (655 or 74.8% out of 876) predominate and majority (587 or 67.0% out of 876) were Hindu. Psychiatric diagnosis was found to be maximum in Dissociative disorder (212 or 24.1%) followed by depression (103 or 11.7% respectively). Majority of the females had a diagnosis of dissociative disorder (170 or 33.4%) followed by depression (69 or 10.03% respectively) whereas among males most (57 or 15.4%) had a diagnosis of mental retardation followed by depression (52 or 14.1% respectively).
Child & adolescent, psychiatric morbidity, socio-demographic, dissociative disorder, retrospective study
