A study of psychiatric morbidity among school going adolescents

This study aims to study the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among adolescents and compare its distribution in the urban and rural areas.

This was a cross-sectional study.

One thousand adolescents aged 11 to 16 years studying in various private and government schools in urban and rural areas in district Patiala, Punjab were studied. Stratified cluster sampling was used considering the type of school as strata and sections of each standard as clusters. The study was conducted in two steps; in the first step, self-designed sociodemographic questionnaire and socioeconomic status scale, Parekh's method of socioeconomic classification for rural area, and Kuppuswamy's revised method of social classification for urban areas. To study the psychiatric morbidity, the strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) self-report version and parent version was used. Students who scored borderline or abnormal on SDQ, were further evaluated in second stage by clinical interview, detailed case history, and mental state examination; psychiatric disorders were diagnosed following International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) criteria.

Chi-square, Student's t-test.

The prevalence ranges from 17.94 in the private school in the urban area and 20.96% in government schools in the urban area to 20.61% in private schools in the rural area and 22.17 in government school of the rural area. The overall prevalence of psychiatric disorders is higher among adolescents in the rural area (21.38%) as compared to the urban area (19.43%). Rural adolescents had significantly higher rates of somatoform disorders (4.45%), conduct disorder (3.78%), dysthymia (1.11%), and other mood disorders (0.89%) whereas higher rates of depression (3.88%), anxiety (3.67%), and hyperkinetic disorders (3.02%) were found in urban counterparts.

An alarming number of adolescents suffer from different emotional and behavioral problems, but there is no excess of formal mental illness reaching the psychiatrist. This should help us formulate a rational basis for deploying our resources for the treatment and prevention of mental illness in tomorrow's adults.