Child psychiatric disorders in a primary care Arab population

Physical and psychiatric comorbidity is relatively common in general practice but there have been few systematic studies using clinical interviews of children attending the primary care services in the Arab population, and none from the Gulf countries. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence and nature of child psychiatric morbidity in primary care in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Systematic psychiatric evaluations were carried out on consecutive children aged 6 to 18 years visiting their primary care doctors in Al Ain. The sample consisted of 141 (50.7%) boys and 137 (49.3%) girls.

Forty-three percent of the 278 children received a DSM-IV diagnosis. Of these, 46 (38%) were males and 74 (62%) were females. However, only 1.1% (3/120) of the patients consulted general practitioners for a primary psychiatric symptom. The most common diagnosis was anxiety disorder followed by depression. Obsessive compulsive disorder was present in 11%, conduct disorder in 7%, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in 3% of those with a diagnosis. A statistically significant association was found between DSM-IV caseness and female gender, higher number of children in the household, relationship problems in the family, physical illness and family history of psychiatric disorder. Other factors that did not show any significant association were age, nationality, socioeconomic status, parental education or occupation, scholastic performance or developmental delay in the child, or parental consanguinity.

Our findings suggest that psychiatric disorders are common among young people of Arab origin attending primary care facilities, and that doctors need to be vigilant about this possibility.