Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the sociodemographic characteristics, complaints, and diagnoses of individuals who were admitted to a child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical charts of the patients who were admitted to the child and adolescent psychiatry unit of Adnan Menderes University between February 1st and July 31st, 2014 were retrospectively studied. RESULTS: The rate of girls and boys from a total of 832 cases who were referred to the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic in the six month period was 41.8% and 58.2%, respectively. The mean age of the girls and boys was 10.8±4.9 and 8.5±4.7 years, respectively. The most common age range was between 12 and 18 years. The proportion of patients who lived with both parents was 81.1%; however, the proportion of individuals brought in by institutional caregivers was 0.8%. The proportion of consanguineous marriages was 13.7%. The education level of mothers and fathers was mostly a primary school degree (47% and 45.6%, respectively). A positive psychiatric history was present in 13.7% of the mothers and 7.6% of the fathers. Reasons for child psychiatric assessments were as follows: 21.9% for disability report, 13.8% for forensic evaluation, 11.2% for consultation, and 52.9% for general psychiatric evaluation. Referral complaints were irritability/anger (15.7%), attention deficit/hyperactivity (14.8%), delay in speech (10.5%), fear/anxiety (5.9%), and poor school performance (5.7%). The diagnoses were as follows: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (20.6%), other disruptive behaviors (12.4%), and anxiety disorder (10.2%). CONCLUSION: We revealed that the most common referring complaint was irritability/anger and that the most common diagnosis was ADHD in our patient group, which was similar to previous studies. Our results showed that a low parental educational level and a positive history for parental psychopathology were common in child psychiatry referrals. These data may be considered as risk factors for developing protective mental health services.

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