College of Nursing, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;68(2):334-340. doi: 10.1177/0020764020988584. Epub 2021 Jan 21.
Globally, very few patients with mental illness go to health care facilities to receive psychiatry treatment. This study aims to identify pathways used by patients with severe mental disorders who seek mental health care services in the psychiatry unit of AIIMS, New Delhi.
It is a retrospective cross-sectional study with convenience sampling technique was used, and data were collected from 123 caregivers of patients with severe mental illnesses using standardized tools like MINI, BPRS, YMRS and WHO Encounter pathway.
The findings revealed that 41.5% of the patients made their first contact with the faith healers, 27.6% with AYUSH medical practitioners, 14.6% with psychiatrists and 12.2% with allopathic medical practitioners. About 26% of the patients reported hallucinations as the first symptom for seeking help. In the majority of cases (96.7%), the patient's relatives made the decision for the patient to seek treatment the first time to manage the symptoms. The psychotic symptoms (65.1%) helped the patient's relatives to take the decision for first seek. The mean delay for seeking treatment from psychiatrists was 13.31 ± 10.6 (months).
This study showed that a higher proportion of patients received treatment from the faith healer at the first seek, whereas only a few patients approached psychiatrist directly. Hence, there is an immense need to create awareness regarding mental illness and treatment options available.
在全球范围内，只有极少数患有精神疾病的患者前往医疗机构接受精神病治疗。本研究旨在确定在新德里 AIIMS 精神病学系寻求精神卫生服务的严重精神障碍患者所使用的途径。
这是一项回顾性横断面研究，采用便利抽样技术，使用 MINI、BPRS、YMRS 和 WHO 遭遇途径等标准化工具，从 123 名严重精神疾病患者的照顾者那里收集数据。
研究结果表明，41.5%的患者首次接触的是信仰治疗师，27.6%的患者接触的是阿育吠陀医疗从业者，14.6%的患者接触的是精神科医生，12.2%的患者接触的是全西医从业者。约 26%的患者报告说出现幻觉是寻求帮助的第一个症状。在大多数情况下（96.7%），患者的亲属首次决定让患者接受治疗以控制症状。精神病症状（65.1%）帮助患者的亲属做出了第一次寻求治疗的决定。首次寻求精神科医生治疗的平均延迟时间为 13.31±10.6（月）。
本研究表明，较高比例的患者在首次寻求治疗时接受了信仰治疗师的治疗，而只有少数患者直接寻求精神科医生的帮助。因此，非常有必要提高对精神疾病及其治疗选择的认识。
