• N A Qureshi, T A Al-Habeeb, Y S Al-Ghamdy, M M Magzoub, and H Schmidt.
• Buraidah Mental Health Hospital, Buraidah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Qureshinaseem@hotmail.com
• Saudi Med J. 2001 Jul 1; 22 (7): 619-24.

ObjectiveFrom different perspectives, psychiatric symptoms have special significance in psychiatry. This study comparatively describes the psychopathological symptoms as noted in primary care (402) and general hospital (138) referrals.MethodsFive hundred and forty psychiatric referrals, retrieved randomly, were reviewed extensively for collecting relevant data.ResultsBoth hospital and primary care referrals were observed to have a variety of psychological and somatic symptoms of variable frequencies, which were suggestive of several psychopathological domains. Functional psychotic (19.5% versus 10%), mood (27.5% versus 23%) and psychosomatic (7% versus 2%) symptoms were significantly noted in hospital referrals as compared to primary care referrals while the later were observed to have significantly more somatic (34.5% versus 22.5%) and neurological (8% versus 4%) symptoms. Only a small proportion of primary care referrals (33/402, 8%] have symptoms of childhood psychiatric disorders.ConclusionPsychiatric symptomatology differs in primary care and general hospital referrals. Both the general practitioners and clinicians are expected to record psychiatric symptoms in a comprehensive manner. Hence, they need condensed training courses on psychiatric symptomatology.

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