Iqbal Afridi, Rabia Hameed, Tabrez Ali, Mohsina Zaini, Kehkeshan Mufti.
Behavioral problems & attitude for psychiatric help at cosmopolitan city of Karachi.
Med Channel Jan ;10(2):27-9.

OBJECTIVES: To assess behavioural & psychiatric problems among adults and their attitude to seek help at Karachi. DESIGN: A community based cross-sectional study. SUBJECT & METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Karachi in the last quarter of 2002. One hundred cases, fifty males and fifty females between the ages of 18 to 60 years belonging to different professions were randomly selected. Cases having any organic illness, mental retardation or currently taking psychotherapy or any psychiatric treatment were excluded. A semi-structured Performa based on simple questionnaire by Meninger was designed and administered on each consenting individuals. Those who were illiterate or were having inadequate command of the language were assisted. RESULTS: One hundred cases (Fifty males and fifty females) were interviewed. Their mean age with standard deviation was 34.34?12.78. Their marital status showed that 45% married, 38% unmarried, 8% divorced, 4% widow and 5% widower It was revealed that 48% of the females and 42% males were suffering from mental and behavioral condition at the time of interview. Disturbance of sleep and affect (mood) were the most common findings. Surprisingly majority of the cases did not preferred to seek psychiatric help despite considering it essential. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that people who are apparently working in the community might not be enjoying psychological well-being. A significant number of individuals have mental and behavioural disturbance do not prefer to be seen by psychiatrist because of the stigma associated with mental illness. In this study only 34% female and 16% males intended to go but fear from society and to avoid wearied behaviour of their families prevent them to seek psychiatric help. Their actual explanation was, `we don`t want to be labelled "INSANE"` from the family and the surrounding circle. This mean that a small Amber of people avail psychiatric consultation/services, which may be in fact the `tip of iceberg`. Contrary to the west, where little stress or minor problems can lead them to the psychiatrist nothing happen as such in our country. There is a need of extension of this study based on large sampling size on countrywide scale in order to generalize these findings and address various critical issue, considering the concept ?of "Dare to care" and "A sound mind in a sound body".

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com