A study on collaborative telepsychiatric consultations to outpatients of district hospitals of Karnataka, India

Introduction: The Indian National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) of 2015-2016 has estimated 13.7% lifetime and 10.6% point prevalence for mental illnesses. It has identified that the treatment gap for mental illnesses ranges between 70% and 92%. Tele-Psychiatric consultations could be an alternative and innovative approach to bridge this gap in low resource settings.

Aims: To study the sociodemographic and clinical profiles of patients who have received collaborative Tele-Psychiatric consultations across district hospitals in Karnataka, India.

Methodology: We performed a retrospective review of case files of patients who have received collaborative Tele-Psychiatric consultations from January 2013 to June 2017 through video-conferencing. A total of 139 consultations were provided to patients in the state of Karnataka.

Results: The mean age of the sample is 31 (±15.5) years. 61.8% were male and 79.8% were aged more than 18 years. In total, 25.9% of them had schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, 14.4% had mental retardation, 13.7% had a mood disorder and 14.4% had a substance use disorder. 67.6% of patients had been advised pharmacotherapy, 7.9% had been advised rehabilitation along with pharmacotherapy and 24.4% were advised further evaluation of illness and inpatient care at a higher centre.

Conclusion: Collaborative tele-psychiatric consultations to district hospitals from an academic tertiary care hospital can be feasible and are likely to benefit patients from rural areas. There is a need for more studies to elucidate their acceptability by patients, caregivers and professionals.