Abstract
Objective: From different perspectives, psychiatric symptoms have special significance in psychiatry. This study comparatively describes the psychopathological symptoms as noted in primary care (402) and general hospital (138) referrals. Methods: Five hundred and forty psychiatric referrals, retrieved randomly, were reviewed extensively for collecting relevant data. Results: Both hospital and primary care referrals were observed to have a variety of psychological and somatic symptoms of variable frequencies, which were suggestive of several psychopathological domains. Functional psychotic (19.5% versus 10%), mood (27.5% versus 23%) and psychosomatic (7% versus 2%) symptoms were significantly noted in hospital referrals as compared to primary care referrals while the later were observed to have significantly more somatic (34.5% versus 22.5%) and neurological (8% versus 4%) symptoms. Only a small proportion of primary care referrals (33/402, 8%] have symptoms of childhood psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Psychiatric symptomatology differs in primary care and general hospital referrals. Both the general practitioners and clinicians are expected to record psychiatric symptoms in a comprehensive manner. Hence, they need condensed training courses on psychiatric symptomatology.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 619-624 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Saudi Medical Journal |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 7 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Psychiatric referrals
- Psychiatry training
- Psychopathological symptoms
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine