%0 Journal Article
%T Patients presenting with depression to a psychiatry clinic:a descriptive survey
%A Thilini Rajapakse
%A Abeera Sivapalasingam
%J Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry
%D 2011
%I Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists
%X Clinical experience suggests that depression is common in Sri Lanka. This study aims to describe the characteristics of patients with depressive symptoms presenting to a psychiatry clinic at a teaching hospital in central Sri Lanka, over a period of one year. Information was collected retrospectively, based on clinic notes. Relatively older patients (mean age 41 years), female patients (65.3%) and those with a recent history of attempted self harm (28.5%) were common. Attempted self-poisoning was the commonest method of attempted self harm. Patients with co-morbid alcohol use disorders (5.6%), and those with prominent symptoms of somatisation (31.2%), were less than expected.
%U http://www.sljol.info/index.php/SLJPSYC/article/view/3166