Investigation of psychiatric pathologies in subjects who apply to the health board

Objective: One of the study areas of psychiatry is the health board. No studies were available in the literature about psychiatric pathologies of subjects who applied to the health board in Turkey. The aim of this study is to investigate psychiatric pathologies in subjects who apply to the health board.

Methods: In this study, the files of 1208 cases who applied to the Health Board of our hospital during one year between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. The gender, age, psychiatric diagnoses of patients and the purpose of receiving report, general and psychiatric disability rates, the duration of report, and severe disability status were examined.

Results: Of the 1208 cases analyzed, 1036 (85.76%) were of age 18 or above and 172 (14.24%) were below 18 years old. Of the 1036 adult cases, 667 (64.4%) were male and 369 (35.6%) were female. Psychiatric pathologies were determined in a total of 151 (14.6%) adult cases. The most common pathologies were mental retardation (n=39; 25.8%), schizophrenia (n=31; 20.5%), and depression (n=27; 17.9%). The highest psychiatric disability rate was in schizophrenia and the lowest psychiatric disability rate was in anxiety disorders. The general average of disability in those who have a psychiatric disability was significantly higher than of those without psychiatric disability (p<0.001). The number of severely disabled in those with psychiatric disability was found to be significantly higher than among those without psychiatric disability (p=0.017).

Conclusion: This study was performed as a contribution to the epidemiologic data about psychiatric diseases in our country. Our study has shown that psychiatric pathologies are frequently seen in cases who apply to the health board.