Geriatric Psychiatry: Socio-demographic Characteristics and Diagnostic Profile among senior citizens attending the psychiatric outpatient department of a tertiary health care facility in Nepal.

Abstract

A retrospective study of patients, aged 60 years and over, attending the psychiatric outpatient Department of T.U. Teaching Hospital, during the study period of one-year (1999 April to 2000 March) has been carried out with the aim of studying the socio-demographic characteristics and diagnostic profile. Result revealed that the average age of elderly patients attending geriatric clinic was 67.33 years with the standard deviation of 6.32 years. The average duration of illness was 1030 weeks. The highest number of the patients were illiterate (54.2%). There were more females than males. In other socio-demographic variables, the highest number of the patients was seen in nuclear family (62%), Brahmin in cast (43.8%) and lower socio-economic strata [i.e. income less than Rs. 3000 per month (34.67%)]. Diagnostic profile indicated higher prevalence of mood disorder (30.7%) followed by organic brain disorder (28%) and tension headache (9.3%). The majority of the patients were referred from "other agencies" (28%) and only 44% of the elderly patients gave the history of their illness themselves. This study has important implications in the planning of psychiatric services for the population in this age group, but the findings has to be substantiated in a larger sample of the elderly population.