CHARACTERISTICS AND PRESENTING PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN REFERRED TO A PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC IN SHIRAZ, IRAN

This paper describes the socio-demographic characteristics, developmental histories and presenting problems of 330 children (189 boys and 141 girls) referred to a child psychiatric clinic attached to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, over a two year period. The majority of cases were from relatively well-educated, middle class families living in the city of Shiraz. The main problems cited by parents for seeking psychiatric help were neurotic-emotional reactions, speech difficulties, aggressive acting out, habit disorders, sensory-motor deficiencies and mental retardation. Although overall developmental milestones reported for these children did not seem to deviate much from the generally expected norms, there was a relatively higher occurrence of perinatal and early postnatal complications in their reported life histories.

Keywords : Child psychiatry, child behavior disorders, Iran