The purpose of this study was to examine the relative risk of psychiatric disorders occurring in patients diagnosed with neurological disorders. This study separately computed the relative risk ratios for identified psychiatric disorder (i.e., anxiety, mood disorders, somatization, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, and antisocial personality disorder) on seven of the more common neurological disorders (i.e., brain tumor, closed head injury, stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson's disease). The six psychiatric disorders were chosen based on the epidemiological catchment area (ECA) research (Robins & Reigier 1991) and provided the control group of psychiatric disorders in the general population by which comparisons were made to the neurological care setting. The neurological disorders were included based on the frequency of referrals to a neuropsychological practice. Further, this study provided an overall relative risk ratio of psychiatric disorders for all seven neurological disorders considered together.Participants in this study included a sample of 367 consecutive referrals to a neurology practice in the Midwest. All of the 376 subjects were diagnosed with a neurological disorder. Two hundred forty-six of the subjects were diagnosed with a neurological disorder and no psychiatric disorder. One hundred twenty-one of the subjects were diagnosed with both a neurological and a psychiatric disorder. The MMPI2 was used in the assessment and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The control group, represented by the ECA study, was composed of 19,640 participants.Relative risk estimates were made using cross products ratio. Significance of the risk ratio was tested using Chi-square Continuity Correction values. Power analysis was conducted using Fisher's Exact Test.The results of the analysis suggested that patients with neurological disorders are more likely to present with psychiatric disorders compared to the general population. The overall relative risk for this study revealed that patients were 1.669 times more likely to have a comorbid psychiatric disorder following the diagnosis of a neurological disorder. Additionally, three individual disorders had relative risk ratios suggesting an increase in psychiatric disorders above the risk in the general population. These three conditions included stroke (RR = 3.038), dementia (RR = 2.762), and multiple sclerosis (RR = 3.617). / Department of Educational Psychology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175230 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Brinkman, John J. |
| Contributors | Dean, Raymond S. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | viii, 79 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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