Psychiatric morbidity among school students

Authors

  • Madhu Nayak Department of Pediatrics, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
  • Sagar Lavania Department of Psychiatry, F H Medical College, Tundla, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20183862

Keywords:

Prevalence, Psychiatric morbidity, School students

Abstract

Background: Psychiatric morbidity represents most important problem among all children including school going children worldwide, prevalence of psychiatric disorders among children has been reported to be 14-20% across various studies Child and adolescent population are susceptible for psychiatric morbidity; we plan to evaluate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among school going students of class 8 and 9.

Methods: It was a cross sectional observational study. Study was conducted in two steps, firstly screening was done with GHQ-12 along with socio-demographic data sheets, on second step students scoring above GHQ cutoff score were interviewed by consultant psychiatrist and diagnosis was made as per ICD 10 DCR.

Results: A total of 128 students, consisting of 73 male and 55 females (57% and 43% respectively) with mean age of 13.02±0.58 years participated. With GHQ screening 38 students scored above the cut-off marks and finally 6 children were diagnosed as generalized anxiety disorder, 6 as Depression, 1 as elimination disorder (nocturnal enuresis), 3 as separation anxiety, 4 cases of OCD, and 2 cases of Panic disorder totaling to 21 (16.41%) students.

Conclusions: This study finds a prevalence of 16.41% of the psychiatric morbidity among school students.

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Published

2018-10-22

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Original Research Articles