Prevalence of symptoms associated with mental illness in Salvadorians

• Main Author: José Ricardo Gutiérrez
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Centro de Investigación sobre Desarrollo Humano y Sociedad 2004-07-01
• Series: Revista Internacional de Psicología
• Subjects: Trastorno mental; salud mental; síntomas; Síndrome
• Online Access: http://revistapsicologia.org/index.php/revista/article/view/29

The present study arises the purpose of describing and explaining some behaviors considered abnormal, that with Salvadorans present, which in many occasions are the result of greater conflicts; for example, social violence, familiar violence, delinquency, homicides, depression and anxiety, among others. The specific objectives that were considered at the beginning of the project were to identify the incidence of symptoms of mental upheavals; to establish the difference of symptoms in relation to the sex of the population; to determine if sex affects the mental upheavals; and to establish the prevalence of symptoms of the mental upheavals in each geographic zone of the country. In the methodology of the study, the following strategies were used: It was determined that it was a descriptive study, the design of investigation was transactional descriptive; the random sampling by conglomerates was used; the technique used was the survey directed to 1.668 people distributed in the 31 more important cities of El Salvador; the instrument used was the Illustrated Questionnaire of Symptoms (designed by the PAHO/WHO) that measures the presence of symptoms of ten mental upheavals and behavior. The results can be synthesized in percentages of prevalence of symptoms and some of these are the following: 50% of the interviewed people presented symptoms of compulsive obsessive upheaval, 47,7% presented anxiety symptoms and distresses, 36,8% presented somatization characteristics. Also, 29,1% presented some symptoms of depression; 33,2% of the evaluated population declared to have symptoms of the convulsive Syndrome. 35,8% demonstrated some suspicions of symptoms of an organic cerebral Syndrome. The final part of the study contains the conclusions and a set of solution strategies.