Psychiatric morbidity among adult patients at the medical and surgical emergency departments of a Nigerian teaching hospital
Keywords:
psychiatric morbidity, depression, weighted prevalence, medical emergency, surgical emergencyAbstract
Objective: The study was conducted to determine the prevalence and pattern of psychiatric morbidity in patients seen at a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital's medical and surgical emergency department.
Method: A two-stage cross-sectional descriptive study used a systematic sampling of all consenting patients admitted into the medical and surgical emergency. Six hundred and three patients who met the inclusion criteria and completed a socio-demographic questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) were analyzed. Patients who met the cut-off score of 3 or more on the GHQ12 and a 20% random sample with GHQ-12 score <3 were further subjected to a definite diagnostic assessment using the Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview and were diagnosed according to the 10th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) criteria.
Result: The mean age of respondents was 45±19 years, 63.3% were males, and 71.8% were married. Patients at the medical emergency constituted 53.2%. The weighted prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among medical emergency patients was 21.5% and 17.4% for patients at the surgical emergency. Depressive disorder was the commonest in both wards.
Conclusion: Some patients presenting to medical and surgical emergencies have co-existing psychiatric disorders. Conscious efforts should be made to recognize psychiatric disorders among patients with physical illnesses, improving their quality of care and contributing to better outcomes.
References
Shakya DR, Shyangwa P, Shakya R. Psychiatric emergencies in a tertiary care hospital. Journal of Nepal Medical Association. 2008; 47 (169): 2833.
Ballester DA, Filippon AP, Braga C, Andreoli SB. The general practitioner and mental health problems: Challenges and strategies for medical education. Sao Paulo Medical Journal. 2005;1232:72-6.
Calnan M. The functions of the hospital emergency department: A study of patient demand. The Journal of Emergency Medicine. 1984;21:57-63.
Uniform Medical Plan. UMP definition:
“Medical emergency” [cited 2015 10th March ].
A v a i l a b l e f r o m : http://www.fuzeqna.com/medicalemergencies.
List of medical emergencies [cited 2015 10th
M a r c h ] . A v a i l a b l e f r o m : http://www.wikipedia.org.
Farmer PE, Kim JY. Surgery and global health: A view from beyond the OR. World Journal of Surgery. 2008;324:533-6.
Talbot-Stern JK, Green T, Royle TJ. Psychiatric manifestations of systemic illness. Emergency
Medicine Clinics of North America.
;182:199-209.
Patel AR, Hurst JR. Extrapulmonary comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: State of the art. Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine. 2011;55:647.
Davydow DS, Katon WJ, Zatzick DF. Psychiatric morbidity and functional impairments in survivors of burns, traumatic injuries, and ICU stays for other critical illnesses: A review of the literature. International Review of Psychiatry. 2009;216:531-8.
Esselman PC, Thombs BD, Magyar-Russell G, Fauerbach JA. Burn rehabilitation: State of the science. American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2006;854:383-413.
Silver JM, Kramer R, Greenwald S, Weissman M. The association between head injuries and psychiatric disorders: Findings from the new haven NIMH epidemiologic catchment area study. Brain Injury. 2001;1511:935-45.
Fujii DE, Ahmed I. Risk factors in psychosis secondary to traumatic brain injury. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 2001;131:61-9.
Hawton K. The long-term outcome of psychiatric morbidity detected in general medical patients.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
;253:237-43.
Makanyengo M, Othieno C, Okech V.
Consultation liaison psychiatry at Kenyatta national hospital, Nairobi. East African Medical Journal. 2005;822.
Wittchen H-U, Holsboer F, Jacobi F. Met and unmet needs in the management of depressive disorder in the community and primary care: The size and breadth of the problem. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2001;62:23-8.
Goldberg DP, Hillier VF. A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine. 1979;901:139-45.
Goldberg DP, Gater R, Sartorius N, Ustun TB, Piccinelli M, Gureje O, et al. The validity of two versions of the GHQ in the WHO study of mental illness in general health care. Psychological Medicine. 1997;2701:191-7.
Gureje O, Obikoya B. The GHQ-12 as a screening tool in a primary care setting. Social Pychiatry and Psychiatric Eidemiology. 1990;255:276-80.
Abiodun O. A study of mental morbidity among primary care patients in Nigeria. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 1993;341:10-3.
Dunn G, Pickles A, Tansella M, VázquezBarquero JL. Two-phase epidemiological surveys in psychiatric research. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 1999; 174: 95-100.
Bell G, Hindley N, Rajiyah G, Rosser R. Screening for psychiatric morbidity in an accident and emergency department. Emergency Medicine Journal. 1990;73:155-62.
Salkovskis PM, Storer D, Atha C, Warwick HM. Psychiatric morbidity in an accident and emergency department. Characteristics of patients at presentation and one month follow-up.
The British Journal of Psychiatry.
;1564:483-7.
El-Akabawy A, El-Defrawy M, Wilson A, ElFiky M, Youssef I, El-Lithy W, et al. Psychiatric morbidity among attenders of emergency room in ismailia general hospital. Current Psychiatry. 1994; 1(2):143-47.
Seltzer A. Prevalence, detection and referral of psychiatric morbidity in general medical patients. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 1989;827:410-2.
Mohammed A, Said JM, Wakil MA, Rabbebe IB, Sheikh T, Agunbiade S. Unrecognized psychiatric disorders among adult patients admitted into a general hospital in Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria. The Pan African Jedical journal. 2014;19.
Abiodun O, Ogunremi O. Psychiatric morbidity in medical and surgical wards of a Nigerian general hospital. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1990;344:409-14.
Nair MG, Pillay SS. Psychiatric disorder in a South African general hospital: Prevalence in medical, surgical, and gynecological wards. General Hospital Psychiatry. 1997;192:144-8.
Kagee A. Symptoms of depression and anxiety among a sample of South African patients living with a chronic illness. Journal of Health Psychology. 2008;134:547-55.
Bell G, Reinstein DZ, Rajiyah G, Rosser R. Psychiatric screening of admissions to an accident and emergency ward. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 1991;158:554-7.
Gureje O, Lasebikan VO, Ephraim-Oluwanuga O, Olley BO, Kola L. Community study of knowledge of and attitude to mental illness in nigeria. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;1865:436-41.
Charalambous MP. Alcohol and the accident and emergency department: A current review. Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2002;374:307-12.
Patel V, Kleinman A. Poverty and common mental disorders in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2003;818:609-15.
Williams ER, Guthrie E, Mackway-Jones K, James M, Tomenson B, Eastham J, et al.
Psychiatric status, somatization, and health care utilization of frequent attenders at the emergency department: A comparison with routine attenders. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2001;503:161-7.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Research Journal of Health Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Research Journal of Health Sciences journal is a peer reviewed, Open Access journal. The Journal subscribed to terms and conditions of Open Access publication. Articles are distributed under the terms of Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/4.0). All articles are made freely accessible for everyone to read, download, copy and distribute as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
