PATTERN OF PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY AMONG REFERRED PATIENTS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY IN SUPER SPECIALITY HOSPITAL OF KASHMIR

BACKGROUND The paper discusses the role of referrals in psychiatric practice using referrals from various departments in super-speciality teaching hospital. It is a care delivered by psychiatrists to patients with co-occurring medical and psychiatric problems who are being treated primarily in medical settings. The department of psychiatry in a super-speciality hospital setting, has a multidimensional role providing inpatient care, maintaining strong interaction with community psychiatric services and offering specialist services to the general hospital wards either as part of the multidisciplinary approach to patient management or by offering specialist inpatient care to patients already hospitalised in other departments, or attending patients referred from other departments with psychiatric problems.(1-3) The most referrals were from department of medicine with most common reasons being depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). All patients being referred to psychiatry were included in the study over 3-month period. The information was recorded on a structured questionnaire and analysed the data using SPSS. A total of 350 patients were referred to psychiatry from various departments. RESULTS Average age of the patients referred to was 32.6 years. 151 (48.2%) referrals were males. 71 (22.7%) referrals were from Cardiology, 46 (14.7%) from Neurology, 39 (12.5%) from General Medicine, 36 (11.5%) from Gastroenterology, 28(8%) from Physical Medicine, 24 (7.7%) from Accident & Emergency, 22 (7%) from Endocrinology, and 47 (15%) were from various other departments. Among the various reasons of referrals, 40 (12.8%) were for depressive disorder, 29 (9.3%) for functional neurological symptom disorder, 28 (8.9%) for generalised anxiety disorder, 27 (8.6%) for panic disorder and somatic symptom disorder each. 162 (51.8%) referrals for other reasons. CONCLUSION We concluded that awareness of using referral services is most important. We also conclude that it was necessary for a physician to have a comprehensive knowledge of psychiatric symptoms and timely intervention should be adopted in referral system.