Delay in seeking allopathic psychiatric treatment and its association with locally available treatment practices and socio demographic characteristics of the patients attending Teaching hospital Kurunagala Sri Lanka

Abstract

To estimate the delay in seeking allopathic treatment and to describe the association between locally available treatment practices and delay among patients with mental disorders attending Teaching Hospital, Kurunegala Sri Lanka. This was a hospital based cross sectional descriptive study. It was carried out by using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Study sample consisted of 404 patients. Age of the patients ranged from 14 year to 90 years. There were 215 males and 189 females. Majority of patients were Sinhala Buddhists. Percentages of married and unmarried patients in the sample were 59. 4 percent and 44.6 percent respectively. At the time of the investigation 54.6 percent of them were involved in any income generating activity