[Treated psychopathological morbidity: demographic and diagnostic features]

In this work we studied all the successive outpatients, age 16 years and older, treated during a six months period, at a Psychiatric Unit of the Spanish Seguridad Social. Diagnosis were made following DSM-III Criteria. All patients belonged to a catchment area with known demographic variables, so that we were able to estimate population-based standardized morbidity rates. A total of 688 patients were treated during the six months period (rate of 8.22/1.000). Females outnumber males significantly (rates of 11.47/1.000 and 4.89/1.000 respectively). By specific disorders: generalized anxiety (rate of 236) was the most treated; followed by depressive episode (rate 2.27), somatization (rate 0.80) and panic (rate 0.74). These four disorders accounted for the 75% of total treated morbidity. Our total treated morbidity is higher than that reported by community mental health centers in Greece and Italy, and lower than that reported at the E.C.A. sites in the United States. We also found that those disorders with somatic symptoms (somatization, panic) are treated much more frequently than disorders with psychic symptoms (obsessive-compulsive, phobia).