Non-psychiatric Referral among First Encounter Patients Attending the Psychiatry Out Patient Services of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Pathway of psychiatric care is defined as the sequence of contacts with individuals and organizations initiated by the distressed person's efforts and his significant others to seek appropriate health care. This study aimed to find the prevalence of non-psychiatric referral as first encounter among patients attending the psychiatry outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from 29(th) March 2015 to 25(th) April 2015 in the outpatient department of the department of psychiatry of a tertiary via direct interview using the World Health Organization's encounter form. Ethical approval was taken from undergraduate medical research protocol review board (Reference number 105/071/072). Psychiatric diagnoses were made by respective consultants using the International Classification of Diseases-10 Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines criteria. Data was entered in the Microsoft Excel 2007 and analyzed by Stata version 15. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. RESULTS: Out of 50 patients, 26 (52%) (38.2-65.8 at 95% Confidence Interval) of new cases in the outpatient department had non-psychiatric referrals. Among them, 13 (26%) referred from faith healers, 7 (14%) from the general hospital and 6 (12%) from medical out patient department. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of non-psychiatric referral for the patients seen for the first time in the psychiatry outpatient department was similar to findings from studies done in different parts of South East Asia.