Psychiatric Morbidity in Adolescents Attending Tertiary Care Facility

Everyone has mental health needs, whether or not they have diagnosis of mental illness. Adolescents, like adults, also have mental health needs. The profound physical and psychological changes of puberty disturb the child emotionally. He has strong sexual and aggressive drives, seeks independence and tends to withdraw from parental relationship. These significant changes need the supportive environment of family, teachers, community, health personnel and peer groups.The importance of adolescent psychiatry has never been profound in India. The future of our country depends on mental health and strength of our young people. This clinic based study attempts to explore the morbidity load of categorized mental disorders in the region. This study needed to be undertaken in order to know the epidemiology, psychological and socio-cultural factors influencing the adolescents seeking mental health services due to psychiatric morbidity. This evaluation would help us to assess the need of public health agencies that contribute to the provision of primary prevention studies of mental health problems through an array of public health promotion and education activities.