Psychosocial stresses and psychiatric disorders in an outpatient population in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

A retrospective study of 270 psychiatric outpatients at King Faisal Specialist Hospital was conducted to determine psychosocial stresses that contribute to a patient's illness in an Arab culture. These stresses were identified subjectively by the patient as causes of his or her illness; they were then categorized as mental, family, work, economic, grief, physical illness, or other. The categories were correlated with other factors such as age, occupation, sex, and diagnosis. Of 270 patients, 142 (52.6%) reported that stressful life events contributed to their illness, a ratio comparable to that in other countries. However, the ratio of females to males reporting stresses was higher than that found in the West. Other findings included a relative absence of work-related or age-related stress and a greater association between anxiety or dysthymic disorders and stress than between psychotic disorders and stress. Although no confirmed reliable method exists to measure the impact of life events on psychiatric disorders, our findings lend credence to the theory that life events play a major role in neuroses, a formative role in mixed depressive illness, and a precipitating role in schizophrenic episodes.