title: Value of the general health questionnaire in detecting psychiatric morbidity in a general hospital out-patient population.
abstract: On administering the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) in English, Gujarati and Marathi, to 500 non-acutely ill adult patients selected randomly from a General Hospital Out-patient Department, it was found that 57% scored high (12 and above), indicating the possibility of psychiatric morbidity in this group. On subjecting 50 of these patients to blind psychiatric evaluation a misclassification rate of 30% was observed with respect to the G. H. Q. 96% of the psychiatrically ill scored high on GHQ, 37% of those scoring high on G. H. Q. were psychiatrically normal. If this misclassification rate is lowered by suitable modifications such as reducing items pertaining to Group A of the G. H. Q., then this test will be very useful as a simple tool to detect psychiatric morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Head & Emeritus Professor, W.H.O. Collaborating Centre for Psychopharmacology in India, Department of Psychiatry, K.E.M. Hospital, Parel, Bombay - 400 012.
authors.forename: V N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Bagadia
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Ayyar
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Lakdawala
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Susainathan
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Pradhan