Psychiatric symptomatology and health care utilization

This paper examines the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and dysfunctions and utilization of general and mental health services. A sample of two hundred community members, 18 to 64 years old, was selected using a stratified random sampling based on the criteria of sex and age. Respondents were categorized according to their aggregated scores on the validated Psychiatric Symptom and Dysfunction Scales. Patterns of utilization were ascertained according to identified levels of psychiatric symptoms. Results indicated that as the level of psychiatric symptoms increased so did the proportion of users of mental health services. Subjects scoring high in psychiatric symptomatology were also found to make more use of general health services and prescribed drugs than those with low levels of psychiatric symptoms and dysfunctions. Worth mentioning is the fact that 61.12% of the respondents, who were identified as in need of mental health services, reported that they had not received such services. This result suggests that other factors, in addition to psychiatric symptomatology, also influence the use of general and mental health services.