SELF REPORTING QUESTIONNAIRE AS A TOOL TO DIAGNOSE PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY

Abstract

Background: Mental health is a neglected health issue in India. It is known fact that person not well mentally will not be able to work efficiently and that will have adverse impact on nation’s economy. Therefore it will be helpful if we are able to diagnose possible psychiatric morbidity in individual working. It is very difficult in India where psychiatrist and general population ratio is poor. Present study was conducted with aim of evaluating usefulness of self reporting questionnaire (S.R.Q.) as a tool to diagnose psychiatric morbidity. This will help us lower burden on qualified psychiatrist and also to find more hidden cases of psychiatric morbidity that could lie in community.

Materials and Methods: It’s a cross sectional study conducted in two vocational training institutes for blinds. They were subjected to pre tested S.R.Q. and Personality Based Hardiness Index (PBHI) the individuals found positive with this tool and double the number of matched S.R.Q. negative controls from the institute were subjected to psychiatric clinical examination done by qualified psychiatrist. Fisher’s exact test and chi square test were used

Results: 15 (7.18%) blinds were found S.R.Q. positive indicating they either have or prone to have psychiatric morbidity.

Conclusion: S.R.Q. is a very useful tool to diagnose psychiatric morbidity and can be used with minimal training. It is very easy to administer and interpret than PBHI. Such tools are needed in the developing nations like ours to screen more population and improve mental health.