Objectives Treatment for mental health problems is determined by cultural, health infrastructure, and illness-related factors. Literature is sparse from India, particularly from the mental health resources-deficient regions of the country such as central India. Therefore, the current study is aimed at assessing the profile of the patients visiting the psychiatry outpatient facility (OPF) of a tertiary-care general hospital setting (GHS), their referral patterns, and their determinants.

Materials and Methods A retrospective chart review of the newly registered individuals (October 2019 to March 2020) in the psychiatry OPF of the GHS from Central India was used in the study. Data (sociodemographic profiles, illness characteristics, and referral patterns) were extracted as per the standard guidelines.

Statistical Analysis Descriptive statistics were used to represent sociodemographic, illness-, and past treatment-related characteristics of the participants. Chi-squared test was used to compare the referral characteristics of the two groups (self-referred patients vs. those referred by others, dependent variable) with regard to characteristics of the patients (independent variables).

Results A total of 418 individuals were registered in the clinic. Most individuals suffered from the neurotic, stress-related, and somatoform group of disorders (n = 231, 39.5%). More than halves were self-referred; most were referred from the internal medicine and allied departments. Being male, having at least graduate degree (χ2df(1) = 4.25 to 6.79, p < 0.05), suffering from organic mental-, psychotic-, and recurrent affective-disorders, and positive family history (χ2df(1) = 4.91 to 21.76, p < 0.05 to <0.001) along with first treatment attempt or previous treatment from the traditional healers, and absence of co-occurring medical illness were associated with self-referral (vs. referred by others) (χ2df(1) = 4.64 to 17.6, p < 0.05 to <0.001).

Conclusions GHS has a characteristic referral pattern. The referral patterns of the patients for various psychiatric problems are determined by their sociodemographic, illness, and cultural characteristics; particularly, poor mental health literacy (among the patients-caregivers), stigma related to mental disorders, and unavailability of the mental health services act as major determinants. Sensitizing the patients-caregivers and health-care professionals concerning this could facilitate an early engagement with the psychiatric treatment. Future research needs to explore this phenomenon in greater detail, maybe by qualitative methods.

S.G. was involved in conceptualization, development or design of methodology, maintaining research data, and writing initial draft. ARR conceptualized and reviewed the draft. P.C. and A.A. were involved in data collection, data analysis, and writing the results. S.S.V. and G.K. were involved in data collection and writing the initial draft.

The study proposal has the approval of institute human ethics committee (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal) and the research has been conducted as per the Declaration of Helsinki.

Article published online:
23 June 2022

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