Vignette method for psychiatric case detection in a rural community.

Vignette method for psychiatric case detection was used on a rural population in Malaysia. Vignettes of six major mental disorders viz. 'acute psychosis', schizophrenia, mania, major depressive disorder, mental retardation and epilepsy were administered to 180 key informants followed by questions on recognition and seriousness of the disorders. This resulted in 569reports of 'probable psychiatric cases' . Of these, 289 reports were verified by psychiatric interview. A total of 215 cases were found to have epilepsy, mental retardation, schizophrenia or manic depressive illness. A point prevalence rate of these disorders was found to be 0.8%. The value of vignette method in detecting psychiatric cases in the community was shown by: a) 70% ofthe cases detected had never sought psychiatric consultation b) 50% of the cases had not been to any doctor c) 55% of reports of 'probable cases' turned out to have active psychiatric illness of the types studied.