Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry, Aneeqa Shamshad Butt, Ejaz Ahmad Khan, Asma Abdul Latif, Jalil Kamran, Mumtaz Ali Khan, Muhammad Saleem Rana.
Health Seeking Behavior of Psychiatric patients at an Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;7(3):137-41.

Background: Mental and psychological disorders are responsible for significant morbidity and disability worldwide. Results of World Mental Health Consortium demonstrate that common mental disorders are highly prevalent globally. Only a limited proportion of patients with psychiatric disorders attend the healthcare facilities, in severe condition. Treatment by unqualified medical practitioners and faith healers is a common practice, which significantly delay the proper treatment. Methods: We conducted this survey at the psychiatry OPD at Jinnah Hospital Lahore from March 2015 to May 2015. 1000 study subjects of 14 -70 years of age from both genders were enrolled for this study randomly, who sought psychiatric opinion for first time. Results: One hundred patients were examined, mean age of subjects was 31 years (SD + 15.02), with 53.0% females. More patients (60.0%) were first time recognized by their family members, remaining sought treatment by themselves. As per history 42.4% patients had consulted to Qualified Medical General Practioners, 19.9% to Piers, 12.0% to Religious Clerics and 10.5% to Hakim, Fakir, Malang etc. and only 2.6% consulted to psychotherapist. Conclusion: It is concluded that in our setting psychiatric illnesses are always recognized late and medical practitioners do not bother to obtain consultative opinion from psychotherapist

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