Analysis of patients attending a private psychiatric clinic.
BACKGROUND
Private psychiatric clinics provide help for the bulk of our population, but they have not been evaluated systematically. It is time that we analyze the functioning of these set-ups to improve functioning. This paper is a modest attempt to analyze one such clinic.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the diagnostic distribution of the clients attending the clinic and to study the pattern of follow-up.


METHODS
All records from April 1(st) 1997 to 31(st) March 1999 were analyzed. This is a descriptive study.


CONCLUSIONS
A total of 3077 new patients visited the clinic in this period. The male:female ratio was 54:46. Diagnostic distribution revealed the following: schizophrenia 20%, affective disorders 40%, OCD 8%, dissociative disorders 5.5% and anxiety disorders around 4.5%. The pattern of visits revealed that 50% of the patients dropped out after the first visit. Another 25% did so in next the two visits.
Department of Psychiatry, KGMU, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Anil Kumar
AK
Agarwal
Diagnostic distribution; India; drop out; private psychiatric clinic anaylisis of a psychiatric clinic