

<strong>Paper Title</strong><br>

Screening for Mental Health Disorders among Adolescents Studying in Schools of Mangaluru, India<br>

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<strong>Abstract</strong><br>

INTRODUCTION

Adolescence commonly expresses with psychological problems during their development but most of them are transient in nature and not usually noticed. The health status during this period has a lot of implications on their adulthood. Our study aimed at screening for disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Mood Disorders (MD).

METHODOLOGY

A school based cross sectional study was conducted among 255 students to screen for the above mentioned disorders in the month of January, 2016. Child and Youth Mental Health General Screening Questionnaire was used as a study tool. Prior to the start of the study, the protocol was submitted for the approval of the Institutional Ethics Committee of Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru. A written informed assent and consent were obtained. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. 

OBSERVATION AND RESULTS

According to our study, prevalence of conduct disorder was found to be maximum (59.2%) followed by generalized anxiety (34.9%) and separation anxiety (24.3%).Oppositional defiant disorder was found to be the least(7.8%).The prevalence of other disorders were as follows ADHD (9.6%) and MD (17.3%).There was a statistically significant association of anxiety disorders with the occupational status of mother; found to be higher in adolescents with mothers as home makers. From the analysis separation anxiety has a p-value of 0.012 and generalized anxiety is 0.046.Among the study subjects 36.9% showed prevalence of a single mental health disorder whereas 2.4% showed presence of five out of six disorders.

CONCLUSION

The burden of illness resulting from behavioral disorders is enormous among adolescents. In order to create awareness it is crucial to assess the social, public and mental health response and regular counselling can be adopted to combat with increasing levels of stress.