Psychiatric Morbidity in A Sub-Himalayan Tribal Community : An epidemiological Study

This paper reports the findings obtained from an epidemiological study conducted on the Totos-a sub-Himalayan tribe who were at the verge of extinct in early 70's in the state of W.B. The place in which they live is not easily accessible to the outsiders. The present study investigated socio-demographical aspects and the level of psychiatric morbidity within the Toto community. The study had been conducted on the total population of 1021 as available in the study period of 6 weeks. A socio-demographic profile on the tribal community had been drawn. The findings showed that proportion for male and female were close to each other, though, interestingly children below 15 years of age had accounted for almost half of the entire population. The socio-demographic profile that included other bio-social and social cultural factor were also discussed. Psychiatric morbidity was investigated within the Toto community. The results showed about 50 per thousand of the Toto population were psychiatrically morbid — with females being more affected than that of males. The rate of variation of different psychiatric disorder had been studied and the obtained findings indicated that the Totos mostly suffer from depression though other disorders were also found of very low rate compared to that of depression. The findings of psychiatric morbidity had been discussed with each of the socio-demographic factors after proper statistical analysis.