[Mental health in a municipality of the State of Querétaro: a community-based psychiatric research model]

Abstract

The main object of this study was to determine, by means of a house-to-house survey, prevalence of mental disorders and type of alcohol consumption in an underprivileged population from a municipality in the State of Querétaro, Mexico. Results show that there was an 18.26% prevalence of psychiatric disorders with psychiatric comorbility of 56.8%. Anxiety disorders with 14.9% were the most frequent diagnosis and additional problems in descending order were affective disorders (10.2%), alcohol abuse and dependency (4.9%), schizophrenia (2%), and drug abuse (1.2%). Total prevalence was above that reported previously in Mexican population. There was a 48.8% association between unemployment and presence of one or more psychiatric disorders. Nearly 50% of male population had a problem with or excessive consumption of alcohol. These results lead us to consider that this is a high-risk population and that efforts must be made to continue these assessments to better determine prevalence of mental disorders and problems associated with them as well as the optimal mechanisms for attention to therm.