Psychiatric Morbidity in Elderly Patients attending OPD of Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital

Context: The number of geropsychiatric patients is increasing but sufficient work has not been done in this area of Nepal. Aims: To find out the prevalence of different psychiatric morbidities in elderly population and to find out if there are any age and gender specific differences. Settings and Design: Retrospective review; Psychiatric outpatient department of Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Nepal. Material and Methods: Data for Patients >65 years of age attending the psychiatric outpatient department of Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Nepal, from 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019 were collected retrospectively in a predesigned proforma. Stastistical Analysis Used: Risks of having different psychiatric disorders was estimated using odds ratio. Results: The mean age of study group was 71.49 (S. D=6.99; range=28). 59.7% of the patients (no=179) were female and 40.3% of the patients (n=121) were male. Depressive disorder (33.7%) was the most common diagnosis. In the current study the odds of having depressive disorder was higher in females and younger subgroup of the elderly patient. Organic including symptomatic mental disorders was found in 13.66% of the patients. Dementia (12.3%) was the most common diagnosis followed by delirium (0.7%) and organic psychotic depression (0.7%). The risk of having dementia increased with increase in age [OR ( 75yrs)=10.022, 95%CI=3.406; 29.486]. High prevalence of alcohol related problems (8.3%) was found in our study. Alcohol related problems were more in males and younger subgroup. The prevalence of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) in outpatients was estimated to be 6.1% (SD=1.5). Conclusions: Depressive disorder was the most common psychiatric disorder (33.7%) followed by somatoform disorder (15.7%). The risk of having dementia was increased in older age group which was statisticsically significant. As for gender, alcohol dependence syndrome was found to be more common in males whereas dementia was found to be more common in females. The odds of male patient suffering from depression, anxiety, mixed anxiety depression, somatoform disorder was around half when compared to females.