Clinical and Demographic Profile of Patients Using a Liaison-Psychiatry Service in a General Hospital Setting in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: A significant proportion of patients seen at the general hospital setting for physical illnesses also suffer from psychiatric disorders. Failure to treat these underlying psychiatric disorders may affect the quality of health care given to such patients.This study was designed to assess the clinical and socio- demographic profile of patients using a consultation liaison- psychiatry service at Sacred Heart Hospital, a general hospital setting in Abeokuta. Method: We conducted a retrospective review of records of all new referral patients who were entered into Aro liaison–psychiatry register for a two year period (January 2009 to December 2010 inclusive). Descriptive statistics was used to report the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients. Chi-square statistics was used to assess association between categorical variables and Independent student- t-test to compare the difference in the means of quantitative variables. P-values of significance were set at p ≤ 0.05. Results: Two hundred and ninety eight patients with complete entries into the register were analyzed. There were 129 (43.3%) males. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 40.6 (15.8) years. A majority of the patients was unemployed (52.7%), and 40.6% were of lower educational status .The proportion of patients who were of unskilled labour was 44.0% and 38.9% were not married. A broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders was represented with depression (23.8%) being the commonest. Among the physical co-morbidities, neurological and cardiovascular conditions were the most reported (28.8%). Conclusion: An adult population with wide spectrum of clinical diagnoses were referred to the consultation liaison psychiatry service during the period under review. There is need for a more integrated, comprehensive and holistic medical care in our health facilities. Future research on the dynamics of this consultation liaison psychiatry service is highly indicated.