The importance of sociodemographic characteristics of psychotherapy patients in institutional conditions on the Balkan territory

Abstract

Objectives: The effects of psychotherapy are proven, compelling and far-reaching. The aim was to evaluate sociodemographic characteristics and clinical diagnosis of psychotherapeutic patients who were treated at the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade. Design and Methods: Retrospective clinical study was composed of 334 patients. Patients data related to the gender, age, education, employment, marital status and clinical diagnose were processed by descriptive statistics methods and chi-square test. Results: Psychotherapy services were mostly used by female patients (64.1%), aged 30 to 39 years, majority finished secondary school (47.6%) and were employed (54.8%). Half of the patients were single (49.7%) with unipolar depressive non-psychotic disorder (60.5%). Conclusions: The research of this kind and with this volume of patients, coming from institutional conditions, has never been done among Balkan nationalities and thus represent encouragement for future studies.