PATTERN OF PSYCHIATRIC CO-MORBIDITY IN CHILDREN, AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY, AT SIR C. J. INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRY, HYDERABAD

Background: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), now a day's mental health disorders are the leading causes of disability worldwide. Most of the psychiatric disorders start in child hood and adolescent. In general population 9.3% of the children h ad mental health problem and presence of comorbidity complicate the diagnosis and treatment. Objective: This study was aimed to determine the frequency of psychiatric co-morbidity in children and to identify the common Socio demographic factors associated with presence of psychiatric Co-morbidity. Design: A Cross Sectional Study Place and duration of study: Study was conducted at the Psychiatric out-patient ambulatory care facilities of Sir Cowasji Jahangir Institute of Psychiatry (CJIP) Hyderabad. The study is of 06 months duration (1st January 2016 to 31st June 2016). Subjects and Methods:We calculated a minimum sample size of 340. Non-probability consecutive sampling was done. All Cases of Child Psychiatry up to age 6years to 12years were included. Results: From 340 children majority were male (2.5:1 Male Female ratio), mean age 9.39 years, mean duration of illness 4.21 years (s.d= 2.02). Most common disorder were mental retardation n=101 (29.7%), ADHD n=96 (28.2%), Epilepsy n=53 (15.3%), Depression n=41 (12.1%), Conduct disorder n=21 (6.2%) other disorders occurring in <5%. majority of the children 39.41% (n=134 out of n=340 children) had at least one co-morbid psychiatric disorder (p-value 0.001) and 6.76% (n=23 out of 340) had second co-morbid psychiatric disorder. Conclusion: Most common child psychiatric disorder were mental retardation, followed by ADHD, Epilepsy, depression, conduct disorder and other disorders occurs in <5%. Meanwhile Mental retardation is most commonly comorbid disorder followed by conduct disorder, epilepsy and OCD and majority of the children had at least one comorbids disorder. Key words: Psychiatric Disorder, Co-Morbidity, Children.