MENTAL MORBIDITY IN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF KHETRI COPPER COMPLEX1

There is dearth of researches pertaining to prevalence of mental morbidity in Industrial setups, particularly in our country. They are important as psychological ill health of workers may adversely effect the productivity in developing country like India. Khetri Copper Complex in Rajasthan was selected for present study. Aims were to determine the period prevalence of mental morbidity among workers and role of sociodemographic, psychological variables in such disorders. 330 workers were randomly selected from various departments. Each worker was given specially designed proforma and Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire. Workers scoring 12 or more were given “A standardised psychiatric interview schedule” suspected cases were examined by senior consultants to assign them diagnostic categories (I.C.D.-9). Period Prevalence in this study was 186.66/1000. As regards diagnostic categories, 75% were neurotic and 12.5% psychotics. Role of socio demographic, psychological and psychiatric variables in the development of these disorders has been discussed. Findings of this study are in expected direction and results obtained can be easily explained in terms of formulations given by other researchers in this field. Recommendation and plans for further research are discussed.