A Survey of Mental Health of New Patients at Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic

In Chinese society, traditional Chinese medical clinics are popular and play a significant role in primary healthcare. The current study aimed to examine the mental health of new patients at Chinese medical clinics. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted. Subjects were new patients of a Chinese medical clinic recruited through 100% consecutive sampling during a 5-week period. A response rate of 84.2% and a sample size of 367 were achieved. Samples included 111 (30.2%) men and 256 (69.8%) women. Mean age was 44.0 (SD = 17.1). Presenting problems were all somatic, with 68.3% lasted over 1 month and 37.1% lasted over 1 year. In the month prior to the first consultation, 26.4%, 33.2% and 19.3% patients consulted other public, private and Chinese medical clinics on average 1.5, 1.9 and 3.0 times respectively. Besides, 7.4% and 6.5% patients self-administered Western and Chinese drugs on average 1.3 and 2.4 times respecttively. Using a cut-off of ≥ 5 on GHQ-12, prevalence of common mental disorders was estimated at 21.0%. In conclusion, findings revealed that common mental disorders were prevalent among new Chinese medicine patients although presenting problems of subjects were all somatic. Many of these presenting medical conditions were chronic, with 68.3% lasting over 1 month and 37.1% lasting over 1 year. Over 70% patients had been seeking various forms of treatment in the month prior to first consultation. Mental health and illness behavior of Chinese medicine patients warrants further research and attention.