PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN PRIMARY-CARE PATIENTS - A 4 YEAR STUDY IN RURAL AND URBAN SETTINGS IN ZIMBABWE

It has been argued that prevalence rates for psychopathology in Africa are stable over time and setting.1 There are, however, few longitudin al studies, and these conclusions are mainly based upon point prevalen ce studies. It has also been observed that African patients present wi th somatic symptoms, a feature argued to impede detection.2 Furthermor e, it has been argued that such multiple somatic symptoms (three or mo re) are diagnostic of psychopathology.3 The present study examined the se questions in the context of a longitudinal design. Prescriptive scr eenings of both rural and urban primary care patients were undertaken, and repeated the following year. The measures indicate that there is no significant difference in the rates in urban and rural settings, no r any difference in the rates over time. There were few differences be tween cases and non-cases in demographic characteristics, but there we re differences in the clinical characteristics of the two groups. Case s tended to present with more symptoms than non-cases, thus corroborat ing earlier findings. In addition, the symptoms of cases tended to imp licate more physiological systems than non-cases.