Authors: Chiro Isalm Mallik, Rifat Binte Radwan.
Adolescence is a fertile age for developing psychiatric disorders yet attention to their mental health is not up to the mark in Bangladesh. No prevalence study has yet been carried out on mid adolescents’ population in Bangladesh using sound methodology. This study was amid to delineate the overall and gender prevalence of psychiatric disorders and its subclasses and to find out the relation between socio-demographic variables with psychiatric disorders in a school sample in Dhaka city. This is a two-staged, cross-sectional study. Through purposive sampling, 315 adolescents aged from 14-17 years were given structured questionnaire included socio-demographic variables and validated self-version of Bangla Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. In the diagnostic phase, 67 subjects were interviewed with the Development and Well-Being Assessment questionnaire for DSM-5 diagnosis. The boygirl ratio was 1.5:1. Most of the subjects (82.9%) were in the secondary level education and 94.6% were from middle income group. Nuclear and joint family was 83.8% and 16.2% respectively. Any form of psychiatric disorders was found to be 18.7% (17.46% in boys and 20.63% in girls). Among them, Major Depressive Disorder, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Conduct Disorder were more prevalent respectively. Further analysis revealed that girls had more Emotional Disorder and Behavioral Disorder was found more in boys. There were no associations between socio-demographic variables and psychiatric disorders except those who came from joint family and that was significantly higher with psychiatric disorders than nuclear family. Our results support the similar type of previous studies. As adolescents play a vital role in the society, special attention must be provided to them.
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