Fahad-ul Zain, Altaf Qadir, Fareeda Shaheen, Jamil Hussain, Jamil Junejo.
Correlation of birth order with psychiatric morbidity a clinical study on patients with differrent psychiatric illnesses at Hyderabad Sindh.
Khyber Med Uni Med J Jan ;6(4):167-71.

Background: Etiologically birth order is a growing precipitator of various psychiatric illnesses. Sociologically most cultures across the world give more importance to males as compared to females for many justifiable or ill reasons. In Pakistani society lower socioeconomic class describes it, "more children means more helping hands. Higher birth order with male gender is conceived a desirable fulfillment of family. Design: Cross sectional study. Place & Duration: Out patients clinic of Liquate University Hospital Hyderabad during 1st January 2012 to 31st January 2012. Measures: One hundred consecutive subjects attending a psychiatric OPD with psychiatric symptoms have been assessed for the total siblings, birth order among siblings and their psychiatric diagnosis. The socio demographic data was recorded through a designed semi structured proforma, and diagnosis was established by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV Text Revised Criteria (DSM-IV TR). Results: The age range remained 9-60 years and numbers of siblings were in the range of 1-12 siblings and fourth birth order was found to be dominant in this study to have psychiatric morbidity (38%). While first order birth was 17%. Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depressive Disorders were dominant diagnosis (55%), while GAD was more in the male gender. Conclusion: This study shows that Psychiatric morbidity was more common in the lower birth order. This study may be carried out at different centers of psychiatry for the better assessment of psychiatric morbidity.

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