A study of socio-demographic variables of patients admitted with dissociative symptoms in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Aims : To study the socio-demographic variables of the patients who were admitted in the
department of psychiatry with an initial diagnosis of dissociative disorder.
Methods : Patients who were initially admitted with a diagnosis of dissociative symptoms were
taken into the study sample and the various sociodemographic variables such as age, sex, religion,
educational status, marital status were studied. ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for dissociative disorders
was used to diagnose dissociative disorders. The patients who were not initially diagnosed with
dissociative disorders were excluded from the study.
Results : The results show that most of the patients (n=38) were young female (84.21%) patients
belonging to 10-20 year age group (39.47%),currently married (44.26%),educated (84.21%) and Hindu
by religion (84.21%).In the majority of the patients the initial diagnosis at the time of admission was
not changed at the time of discharge (84.21%).
Conclusion : The findings of the study concur with the findings of other studies that dissociative
disorders is more common in females of the 10-30 year age group and that the initial diagnosis
remained unchanged in the majority of the patients. Most of the patients were educated though the
level of education was not very high . The prognosis was good in the majority of the patients.