title: Psychological distress among patients attending a general medical outpatient clinic in Pakistan.
abstract: It is not known whether the pattern of psychiatric disorders in medical outpatients in Pakistan is similar to that observed in the West. Consecutive medical outpatients completed the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ) to detect probable psychiatric disorder. The usual cut-off score of 8/9 was used. One-thousand and sixty-nine patients completed the SRQ (84% response rate) at four half-day clinics. Sixteen percent of men and 58% of women presented with medically unexplained symptoms. In men, 80% of patients with medically unexplained symptoms had an SRQ score of 9 or above (probable depressive disorder) compared to 40% of those with symptoms caused by recognized physical illness (P<.0005). In women, the respective proportions were 55.4% and 49.6% (P=.34). Depressive disorder is probably very common in medical outpatients in Pakistan, especially in men with medically unexplained symptoms. Systematic attempts to initiate antidepressant treatment in this setting should be attempted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL, UK. nusrat_husain@camh.net
authors.forename: Nusrat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chaudhry
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Afsar
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Creed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010154:Pakistan; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires