Characteristics of non-psychotic morbidity in a primary care population

The prevalence of non-psychotic 'minor' mental morbidity in primary care setting is high. They often go undetected due to several factors in the patient and the clinician. Studying personal, social and clinical characteristics of non-psychotic patients attending a general hospital outpatient department several factors could be identified which might be helpful in screening of such patients. The factors are sex (female), age (≥40 years), marital status (married/ widowed) education (less than primary school), occupation (unskilled labour) presenting complaint (somatic nature of ≥3 months duration), presence of 4 or more somatic complaints lasting ≥3 months, and presence of dyspeptic symptoms.