Psychiatric disorders in a rural practice in the Bendel State of Nigeria

Abstract

Patients attending a clinic were ascertained for psychiatric morbidity by a general practitioner and reascertained by a psychiatrist. The agreement ranged from 84% for neurosis and 60% for psychosis. The differences were mainly due to a lack of the depression category in the general practitioner's classification. One year incidence of psychiatric morbidity was 35.7 per 1,000 with anxiety state and depression as the two most common disorders. Depression mainly manifested as masked depression with somatic complaints.