Objective: To ascertain the frequency and demographic characteristics of neuropsychiatric patients presenting at our tertiary care hospital.
Methodology: This was a cross sectional prospective study was conducted over a period of one year from March 2014 to March 2015, in Dow University Hospital Karachi, Pakistan. We enrolled 1604 patients by convenience sampling presenting to the outpatient department, with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Age, gender, neurological/psychiatric diagnosis, area of residence (Urban/Rural) were recorded. SPSS v.20 was used for statistical analysis by application of Pearson Chi square and Fishers exact tests. RESULTS: Mean age was 37.9±16.9 years. There were 689(43%) male and 915(57%) female (p=0.01); 824(52%) patients were residents of urban area, while rest of patients were from rural population (p=0.15). Clinical evaluation of patients revealed 112 different neuropsychiatric diseases, out of which most prevalent neurological diseases were lumbar radiculopathy (n=280), migraine (n=172), tension headache (n=154s), cervical radiculopathy (n-121), epilepsy (n=107), stroke (n=104), benign positional vertigo (n=56), multiple sclerosis (n=26), bells palsy (n=21), carpal tunnel syndrome (n=16), and T.B meningitis (n=11). The most prevalent psychiatric diseases were depression (n=85), anxiety (n=15) and schizophrenia (n=4).
Conclusion: Neuropsychiatric diseases are more frequent in younger and middle age group and in females. Most common diseases include lumbar radiculopathy and depression in neurology and Psychiatry clinics, respectively
Key words: Neuropsychiatric disorders, demography, migraine, depression.
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