Analytical study of psychiatric complains in intensive care unit patients

Abstract

Introduction: Numerous studies have established a higher incidence of psychiatric disorders among general hospital inpatients. In our local / Indian set ups there is a lack of literature on the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in patients admitted to the intensive care units. Hence this study was conducted to find psychiatric morbidity among the patients of the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: The present Observational, Analytical & Cross-Sectional study is carried out on 100 subjects. The SCL-R-90 scale was administered to the participants by the faculty in their respective colloquial language. Each item of the questionnaire is rated by the patient on a five-point Likert scale of distress ranging from 0 (none) to 4 (extreme). Results: Nearly 49% of the participants had no psychiatric morbidity. 36% had mild and 15% had moderate psychiatric morbidity as per the SCL-90-R Scale. There was no participant with severe psychiatric morbidity. Factors such as age, gender, educational level, or duration of stay had no significant influence on the outcome. Among the psychiatric manifestations, interpersonal sensitivity and somatization were found to be the most prevalent symptoms.