Sociodemographic and Service Profile of Cases Diagnosed as Psychiatric Investigation NAD in Armed Forces

This study was conducted in a general psychiatric unit of a zonal hospital of armed forces. 50 consecutive individuals, referred for psychiatric evaluation and sent back with diagnosis of Psychiatric Investigation NAD from 01 Jan. 1998 to 31 Dec. 1999, constituting 21.4% of total 234 first psychiatric referrals were included with an aim to study the sociodemographic and service profile of these individuals. Majority of them were other ranks from army, married, with mean age of 31.9 years and service 11.6 years Medical officers and military units referred individuals almost equally. Majority of them had earned unsatisfactory unit reports. The reasons for referral as perceived by individuals were most frequently unit-related problems followed by health related and domestic problems. It was also found that while units referred individuals when perceived to be undisciplined, medical officers referred individuals with concurrent physical disease or personal problems. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.