01885nas a2200241   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653002100055653001200076653002100088653001600109100001900125700002200144700002500166700001400191700001800205245007700223300001000300490000700310050002000317520129200337022001401629       2014                            d  c2014 May10aMental Disorders10aleprosy10aHansen's disease10aComorbidity1 aRocha-Leite CI1 aBorges-Oliveira R1 aAraújo-de-Freitas L1 aMachado P1 aQuarantini LC00aMental disorders in leprosy: An underdiagnosed and untreated population.  a422-50 v76  aROCHALEITE 20143 aOBJECTIVE: To describe the frequency of psychiatric comorbidities in leprosy patients and check if they had been previously diagnosed and were in psychiatric care.

METHOD: The study was conducted with a sample of 120 leprosy patients being treated at two reference hospitals for leprosy in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Survey participants were more than 18years of age, had a confirmed diagnosis of leprosy and was undergoing antimicrobial treatment. Patients were evaluated face-to-face with a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-Plus) in Portuguese. The period of data collection was between October 2009 and June 2012.

RESULTS: The assessment using the MINI-Plus showed that 34 (28.3%) patients did not receive any psychiatric diagnosis and 86 (71.7%) met the criteria for at least one. Of these 86 patients, 25 (20.8%) had one diagnosis, 26 (21.7%) had two diagnoses and the rest, 35 (29.2%), had three or more psychiatric diagnoses. All patients with a moderate or high risk of suicide had one or more psychiatric comorbidities.

CONCLUSION: Leprosy patients have a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities. Furthermore, most of them had no previous psychiatric diagnosis and the majority was not undergoing treatment.  a1879-1360