Background manage psychiatric disorders need to be judiciously used as they are scarce and inadequate. One of the ways to do this is
to establish the prevalence of these disorders and Identify those that are heavy users of the limited resources. Thus, this study was aimed at
determining the pattern of psychiatric presentations at the outpatient department of a slate neuro-psychiatric hospital in Nigeria.
Method A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients and the history of their illness. Categorical diagnoses were made in accordance with the ICD-10 criteria.
Results The most common diagnoses were schizophrenia 23%. depressive illness 22.1% and seizure disorders 14.1%. The burden of care of the
respondents was borne, in 91.0% of cases, by patients' relatives. Patients who presented with first episode of mental illness were 81.6%, second episode 12.6% while those with more than two episodes were 5.8%. It was found that prior to presentation at the study Centre, 69.6% of the patients had been treated by spiritual healers, 42.6% by traditional healers, and 39.6% by g e n e r a l p r a c t i t i o n e r s i n a government/private hospital.
Conclusion There is a need for continuous public enlightenment on the symptoms of mental illness, its early recognition and where to seek
treatment. Health workers/planner should be encouraged to utilize observed patterns of mental illness in the appropriate planning of scarce resources especially in a developing country like Nigeria
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