Psychiatric disorders in primary health care clinics one year after a major latin american disaster

One year after a major natural disaster in Colombia, 100 consecutive adult patients attending two primary health care clinics in neighboring towns were screened for emotional distress with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire, and a sub-sample of 50 subjects were administered a semi-structured psychiatric interview to produce DSM-III diagnoses. Of those, 20 (40%) had a psychiatric diagnosis: post-traumatic stress disorder (n = 12), generalized anxiety disorder (n = 6), psychological factors complicating physical illness (n = 1), and drug abuse (n = 1). The screening instrument proved adequate for the identification of patients at risk of having a psychiatric disorder: its sensitivity was 90%, and its specificity was 50%.