Abstract:
To this day, Anxiety and Depressive disorders remain one of the most prevalent forms of mental illnesses across the globe and yet they also remain grossly under-reported in the US and UK, and even more so in South Asia and other lesser developed regions. This is in part due to the difference in culture between the two, as well as the heavy stigma still associated with mental illness in South Asian communities to this day. Our literature review revealed the scarcity of research on the prevalence, presentation, and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in South Asia, including Pakistan. Existing studies reveal high prevalence rates of these disorders in the community population, particularly among women. Our research aims to investigate anxiety and depressive disorders, specifically reviewing missed cases due to somatization in order to improve diagnoses and treatment strategies. We propose examining how psychological disorders are manifested through unsaid language by patients visiting a tertiary care hospital for physical ailments in Pakistan. After obtaining informed consent from adult patients visiting the Medicine OPD at Services Hospital and recording their conversations with physicians (which will be stored securely), we plan to cross-check and correlate the scores of anxiety and depression using the GAD7 and PHQ9 questionnaires with the doctors` prescriptions and diagnosis notes to validate the psychological symptoms underlying physiological conditions. Furthermore, a vocabulary glossary will be created after analysis of the conversations to obtain an insight into the language patients use to describe their psychological distress under the guise of physiological distress. The data collection for the study is currently (as of 16th July, 2023) underway, with hopes of completion by August, followed by Data compilation and analysis.
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DOI:
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Journal: Abstract Book on 9th Annual Neuroscience Conference (ANC-23) August 12-13, 2023 , Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2023