The attitude and perception of hospital doctors about the management of psychiatric disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To determine perception and the attitude of non-psychiatric doctors about psychiatric problems working in a tertiary care hospital.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey.


METHODS
Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. The questionnaires distributed were returned within one week duration.


METHODS
All the doctors working in Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar for more than one year except house officers and those working in Paediatrics, Radiology and Administration Block were given anonymous questionnaires.


RESULTS
Two hundred and ten doctors returned the questionnaires. One hundred and eighty-three (87 %) of respondents were male. Ninty-eight percent of doctors agreed that psychological factors were important in the cause and outcome of physical disorders but only 26.7 % agreed that management of emotional issues is medical responsibility. There was no statistically significant difference between physicians and surgeons in their attitude towards importance of psychological factors in the physical disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
Doctors working in tertiary care hospital have adequate awareness about the psychological and emotional factors in medical and surgical patients. However, some barriers against the provision of bio-psychosocial care seem to be present.
Farooq
Saeed
S
Department of Psychiatry, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan. sfarooqLRH@yahoo.com
Akhter
Javed
J
Anwar
Ejaz
E
Hussain
Iqbal
I
Khan
Shajaat Ali
SA
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D010154:Pakistan