Dhadphale M, Ellison R H, Griffin L
Br J Psychiatry. 1983 Apr;142:379-83. doi: 10.1192/bjp.142.4.379.
The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (PM) was studied among general hospital out-patients in a rural and in a semi-urban area of Kenya. There were no significant differences in the demographic features of psychiatric patients from the two areas, so the results were pooled: this gave a PM prevalence rate of 29 per cent among 388 patients. Anxiety and depression were the most frequent diagnostic categories. Alcoholism was more common in the rural than in the semi-urban area. There was no sex difference in the prevalence of PM and possible reasons for this, which is in contrast to western findings, are discussed. Psychiatric symptoms could be readily elicited when present. Patients showing them had been ill longer than non-PM patients. The study suggests that clinic staff not psychiatrically trained should be able to identify and treat psychiatric morbidity, even when it is presented as somatic illness.
在肯尼亚一个农村地区和一个半城市地区的综合医院门诊患者中，对精神疾病发病率（PM）进行了研究。来自这两个地区的精神科患者在人口统计学特征上没有显著差异，因此将结果合并：在388名患者中，PM患病率为29%。焦虑和抑郁是最常见的诊断类别。酗酒在农村地区比半城市地区更常见。讨论了PM患病率不存在性别差异及其可能原因，这与西方的研究结果形成对比。精神症状出现时很容易被引出。出现精神症状的患者患病时间比非PM患者更长。该研究表明，即使精神疾病表现为躯体疾病，未经精神科培训的诊所工作人员也应该能够识别和治疗精神疾病。
