Clinical Profile of Children and Adolescents Attending the Behavioural Paediatrics Unit OPD in a Tertiary Care Set up

Background: There are limited studies on the clinical profile of children attending child guidance clinic under Paediatric background. Aims: To study clinical profile of Children & adolescents attending the Behavioural Paediatrics Unit (BPU) OPD under department of Paediatrics in a tertiary care set up. Methods: Monthly average turnover in the OPD was calculated from the sample collected during the period from 1.06.2010 to 31.05.2011. The diagnostics was done using the ICD-10. Results: Totally 264 children attended the unit on an average in a month out of total 9750 children attended the parent Paediatrics OPD. Hospital based prevalence is 2.71%. There was male preponderance (63.63%) and majority of the children were in the age group of 6-12 years (60.98%). Developmental disorders (34.46%) were commonest, followed by externalizing disorders (34.09%), internalizing disorders (15.9%), somatoform disorders (12.12%) and miscellaneous group (15.15%). Dysfunctional type of family was noticed in 31.8%. (Contains 1 table and 5 charts.)