| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Psychiatric morbidity in elderly patients admitted to non-psychiatric wards in a general/teaching hospital in Nigeria | | Author(s) | Richard Uwakwe |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol l5, no 4, April 2000 |
| Pages | pp 346-354 |
| Keywords | Mental disorder ; Admission [hospitals] ; Diagnosis ; Nigeria. |
| Annotation | There are no special geriatric or psychiatric services provided for physically or mentally ill older Nigerians. The present study was designed to determine the level of mental morbidity in older patients admitted to non-psychiatric wards in a Nigerian teaching hospital, and to assess the ability of non-psychiatrists to detect such disorders. Subjects aged 60 and over were assessed with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS). Diagnoses of mental disorders were made with the ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research. Patients' case records were then examined to determine the medical and any mental disorder diagnosis made by attending physicians. Data were analysed by the SPSS/PC+ computer package. The mental morbidity rate was 45.3%, with depression being the commonest disorder, followed by organic disorders (delirium and dementia), adjustment disorder and generalised anxiety disorder. There were also cases of alcohol and drug abuse. The physicians recognised only 2.8% of mental disorders and referred one dementia patient to the mental health team. Adequate training in mental health is required to enable non-psychiatric medical practitioners to be able to recognise psychiatric disorders. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000823206 A |
| Classmark | E: LD:QKH: LK7: 7MT |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|