Mental Morbidity amongst University Students

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the patterns and prevalence of mental disorders, psychiatric disorders and personality disorders amongst male and female students of university. In the same sample prevalence of psychiatric disorders in both rural and urban population in university was also done. For the study a sample of 500 subjects was taken, with 210 belong to rural background and 290 belong to urban background. Out of 500 students 303 were males and 197 were females. High prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (7.8), depression (5.6), phobia (3.8) and alcohol related disorder was (3.4) was noticed in university students. Males were found to suffer more from generalized anxiety disorders (8.91), alcohol related disorder (5.61), phobia (4.95), mania (2.97) as compared to females. Females were found to suffer more from depression (6.59), Dysthymia (3.04), Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (3.04) and Schizophrenia (2.54) as compared to males. Alcohol dependence syndrome was predominantly reported among males only. The overall prevalence of mental disorder was higher among males (36.3/100) than females (25.30/100) (p< 0.01). There was a high prevalence of borderline personality disorder (6%), Paranoid personality disorder (4%), Avoidant personality disorder (2.6), and Histrionic personality disorder (2.4%). Males were found to suffer more from border line personality disorder (7.26%), Paranoid personality disorder (4.29%), Anti social personality disorder (2.64%) and Avoidant personality disorder (2.97%) as compared to females. Females were found to suffer more from Histrionic personality disorder (4.06%), Dependent personality disorder (4.06%), Obsessive personality disorder (2.53%) and narcissistic personality disorder (2.03%) as compared to males. The overall prevalence of personality disorder was slightly higher amongst males (27.39/100) than females (24.84/100) (p<0.05). Prevalence of mental disorder was observed similar in rural (22.4/100) and urban area (25.17/100).