Monthly pattern of psychiatric morbidity and duration of stay among the patients admitted in Mental Hospital, a central level tertiary care hospital.

Psychiatric morbidity is a major public health problem in the world across developed and developing countries. There is a paucity of Nepalese studies on psychiatric morbidity. All the patients who were admitted in mental hospital, Lagankhel from 17th July 2009 to 16th July 2010 were included in this study. Information on their Socio-demographic profiles and hospital diagnosis was extracted from their clinical notes. Eight hundred and fifty two patients were included in this study. Fifty eight percent were males. More than sixty percent of the patients were aged between 21 and 40 years. Sixty patients were married. In terms of ICD 10 diagnosis, the most common diagnoses were Schizophrenia in 427 (50.1%), mood disorders in 286 (33.5%) and substance use disorder in 80 (9.3%). In terms of length of stay, majority of them (56.4%) had stayed for 0-14 days. Thus, there is a need to increase the awareness in the general public regarding the impact of mental illness and the need for timely treatment.