title: Mental disorders in leprosy: an underdiagnosed and untreated population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the frequency of psychiatric comorbidities in leprosy patients and check if they had been previously diagnosed and were in psychiatric care.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted with a sample of 120 leprosy patients being treated at two reference hospitals for leprosy in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Survey participants were more than 18 years of age, had a confirmed diagnosis of leprosy and was undergoing antimicrobial treatment. Patients were evaluated face-to-face with a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-Plus) in Portuguese. The period of data collection was between October 2009 and June 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The assessment using the MINI-Plus showed that 34 (28.3%) patients did not receive any psychiatric diagnosis and 86 (71.7%) met the criteria for at least one. Of these 86 patients, 25 (20.8%) had one diagnosis, 26 (21.7%) had two diagnoses and the rest, 35 (29.2%), had three or more psychiatric diagnoses. All patients with a moderate or high risk of suicide had one or more psychiatric comorbidities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Leprosy patients have a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities. Furthermore, most of them had no previous psychiatric diagnosis and the majority was not undergoing treatment.
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Medicine and Health (PPgMS), Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Clarissa Iris
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Rocha-Leite
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Medicine and Health (PPgMS), Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Borges-Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Service, University Hospital and Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Araújo-de-Freitas
authors.affiliation: Leprosy Clinic, University Hospital Complex Prof. Edgard Santos (Com-HUPES), Postgraduate Medicine and Health (PPgMS), Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Roberto Lima
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Medicine and Health (PPgMS), Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; Psychiatry Service, University Hospital and Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Electronic address: lcq@ufba.br.
authors.forename: Lucas C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Quarantini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D004544:El Salvador / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Comorbidity; Hansen's disease; Leprosy; Mental disorders