STUDIES ON EPIDEMIOLOGY OF NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS AMONG RURAL POPULATION OF PROVINCE OF KHUZESTAN, IRAN

The authors undertook a census study of five small rural villages from the Dez Pilot Irrigation Area of the Province of Khuzestan in south-western Iran which had been hardly touched yet by the on-going development program. From the total population of 614 souls all children below the age of six years were eliminated, these being 129 in number, leaving 485 persons. Three could not be examined because of absence or illness, leaving 482 or 99.4% of the intended survey population. All were given two short intelligence tests (mental arithmetic and block design), the 2 Test of H. Zulliger and a brief questionnaire by Persian lay assistants whom the authors themselves trained. The examiners were required to give a commonsense judgment of their subjects' mental health. The authors observed and supervised all testing, interrogated the subjects and informants where this seemed required and evaluated the tests concurrently. All subjects who seemed suspicious of neuropsychiatric pathology were then given an individual clinical examination. Seventy-two cases were found with apparently significant psychiatric disturbances. Among them there were one functional psychosis, no acute symptomatic psychosis, 15 subchronic and chronic symptomatic psychoses or disorders, 42 psychoreactive disorders and 14 constitutional disorders. Of the 72 psychiatrically disturbed subjects, 37 were mildly, 30 moderately and 5 severely affected. Eleven subjects presented significant neurological or mixed neuropsychiatric disorders. Comparison of the results with those of a similar survey performed in the Marvdasht District of the Province of Fars, Iran, indicates that more prolonged, intensive and individual exploration of subjects showing any suspicion of psychopathology leads to an increase in the number of milder cases identified without changing significantly the number of moderate and severe cases. © 1969 Springer-Verlag.