Socio-demographic and clinical profile of patients admitted into Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital: a three-year retrospective study.

Abstract

Context Inadequate bed spaces have continued to be a challenge to the in-patient management of the severely mentally ill in developing countries. This has to be considered in management of the mentally ill. Aims and objective This study aims to determine the socio-demographic characteristics, the prevalent psychiatric diagnoses and the age and gender distributions of the diagnosis in patients admitted in the psychiatric ward of Ebonyi state university teaching hospital Abakaliki. Methods A retrospective review was done on case notes of all patients admitted into the psychiatric ward of a state university teaching hospital was done. Results One hundred and nine (76.2%) of patients were young adults in the 20-44 years age group. Forty-six (32.2%) of them presented within the first week of onset of the illness and only 84(58.7%) of them did not have a comorbid medical condition at the time of presentation. Prayer house operators were widely consulted before presentation in the hospital. Schizophrenia and related disorders were the commonest and has equal gender distribution. Depression and organic mental disorders were more common among the females while there is no significant difference in the age group distribution of the diagnosis. Conclusion There is need to study the gender issues influencing development of mental disorders in the developing countries. Key Words: Socio-demographic, clinical profile, psychiatry, admission