[Aspects of psychologic disorders in Japanese students]

The present study discusses the reasons which moved 88 students during one year from April 1987 till March 1988 to make their first spontaneous visit to the Department of Psychiatry in the Health Service Center of Tokyo University. The number of patients amounted to 0.60% of the total student enrollment during the period mentioned. The sufferings which motivated their visits could be phenomenally divided into two sectors. The first sector was related to the individual problems of the students and could be sub-divided into somatic and psychic spheres. To the other sector belonged the social or intersubjective relationships with either a general or a special point of reference. The majority of cases (ca. 70% of all patients) fell into the individual sector. Some reasons for this distribution are discussed. Among the patients there was a large percentage of freshmen. This seems to be due to the internal and external milieu changes caused by entering the university life. The ICD-9 diagnosis showed that ca. 80% of the patients exhibited Neurotic disorder and Adjustment reactions. This raises the question of applicability of ICD-9 to minor ailments, frequent among the clients of a Student Health Center. The dominant source of troubles motivating students to seek psychiatric help appeared to be problems connected with the academic life, like entrance into the university, examinations, choice of field of study, and graduation.