Abstract

Background: Neurological disorders are often associated with psychological, emotional, and other psychiatric disturbances and may impede recovery of patient, making early identification and treatment of potential importance. Aims &
Objective: The objective of the study was to see the psychiatric morbidities in in patients attending neurological outpatient department. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the Neurological Outpatient department in the Department of Medicine in Shri Maharaja Singh Hospital (SMHS) Hospital of Government medical college Srinagar. This was a cross sectional study. Five hundred cases of neurological patients were taken up for the study. Psychiatric diagnosis was done by using MINI plus scale which was structured interview. Morbidity in were analysed by the Pearson chi-squared test and t test.
Results: Males constituted 46.6% i.e. 233 and females constituted 53.4% i.e. 267 of sample and mean age of the patients was 35.85 ± 9.475. The maximum number of patients, 40% (n=200) belong to 16-30 years age group ,Total patients 300 patients (60%) out of 500 had psychiatric diagnosis. The presence of psychiatric disorder was maximum in age group of 16-30 years. Conclusion: The results indicate that neurological patients have high levels of psychiatric morbidity. Screening patients with neurological disorders for psychiatric problems and timely psychiatric intervention can go a long way in improving the quality of life of these patients.