Background:In a developing country like India, with a lot of psychosocial stressors and ample stigma toward psychiatry, we studied the sociodemographic pattern of the patients coming to a tertiary care center for emergency psychiatry services and also evaluated the types and pattern of emergency services provided to them. We also assessed the predominant presenting complaints with which patients presented at the emergency department, “reasons for referral” in an emergency by other departments, and types of psychiatric diagnoses in the patients.Subjects and Methods:Data were extracted retrospectively from the general emergency and psychiatry emergency register of Silchar Medical College and Hospital for 1 year and analyzed.Results:Out of 41,040 patients attending the hospital seeking emergency care, referral rate to the psychiatric emergency was only 2.8%. The commonest presenting complaint of subjects who were referred was “medically unexplained somatic complaints” (47.70%). The main reason for a referral from other departments was “no physical illness was detected” in the patient (38.59%). About 78.8% of the subjects were diagnosed as having a proper psychiatric illness, with the majority presenting with stress-related and somatoform disorders (F40–49) (43.45%).Conclusion:This study highlights various important parameters regarding emergency services being provided and their utilization by the patients attending a psychiatric emergency, which could be helpful for future policies and resource allocation for providing superior quality and cost-effective mental health care to the patients.

Background: Substance abuse and dependence besides affecting the individual also has substantial impact upon the family. It puts the whole family through a physical, psychological, emotional and financial stress. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess the various socio-demographic variables of alcohol-dependent patients as well as their primary care givers and evaluate the severity and pattern of family burden among them. Settings and design: A cross-sectional singe interview case study done at Silchar Medical College and Hospital Assam after obtaining permission from ethics committee. Material and Methods: Briefly, 50 cases were selected serially from the Psychiatry Outpatient department fulfilling the ICD-10 criteria of alcohol dependence syndrome and the primary care givers of these cases were assessed to evaluate the pattern and severity of family burden which was assessed via family burden interview scale. Results: Majority of alcohol dependence cases were from the age range of 35 to 44 years (44%) while their primary care givers from 30 to 39 years (44%). Most of cases had their spouses (74%) as the primary care givers and 10-14 years of alcohol dependence (34%). Majority the primary care givers suffered from moderate type of family burden especially in area such as disruption of routine family activity, recreation and family interaction. Higher family burden was associated with equal to or more than 15 years of alcohol dependence which was statistically significant in most of the areas. Higher subjective burden was also observed when the primary care givers were spouse, cases were from rural areas, having nuclear family type with being illiterate/primary educated, belonging to lower/lower socioeconomic group, and were financially dependent on others (unemployed/housewives). Conclusion: The severity of family burden is greatly influenced by the socio-demographic variables of the families as well as the duration of the substance dependence of the cases.

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