Comorbidity in Patients with Dhat Syndrome: A Nationwide Multicentric Study

Abstract

Introduction There are limited numbers of studies on Dhat syndrome. Major limitations of the existing literature are heterogeneous assessment methods used to describe the comorbidity and small sample size from isolated centers. Aim To assess comorbidity with a common methodology in patients with Dhat syndrome from multiple centers across India. Methods Using a cross-sectional design, this multicentric study involved assessment of 780 male patients, aged more than 16 years, across 15 study centers. Main Outcome Measures ICD-10 criteria (for evaluation of psychiatric morbidity and sexual dysfunction) Results About one-third (32.8%) of the cases had no comorbidity. One-fifth (20.5%) of the patients had comorbid depressive disorders and another one-fifth (20.5%) had comorbid neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders. Half (51.3%) of the study sample had comorbid sexual dysfunction. When various combinations of comorbidities were evaluated, it was seen that more than one-fourth (28.7%) of the patients had only comorbid sexual dysfunction and one-sixth (15.9%) had only comorbid depressive/anxiety disorders. A little more than one-fifth (22.6%) had comorbidity of both sexual dysfunction and depressive/anxiety disorders. Conclusion Comorbid sexual dysfunction is seen in half of the cases of Dhat syndrome, and it is more common than comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders.

Psychiatric co-morbidities in patients of dhat syndrome: A cross-sectional study in a tertiary care centre

“…A recent multi-centric study from India reveals sexual dysfunction to be the most common co-morbidity (present in more than 50% of the patients) with Dhat syndrome followed by depression and neurotic or somatoform disorders. 7 One third of patients in this study did not report any other symptoms of psychiatric illness other than Dhat syndrome. 7 A recent review of world literature suggests depressive and anxiety disorders being the most common co-morbid psychiatric disorders with Dhat syndrome.…”

“…7 One third of patients in this study did not report any other symptoms of psychiatric illness other than Dhat syndrome. 7 A recent review of world literature suggests depressive and anxiety disorders being the most common co-morbid psychiatric disorders with Dhat syndrome. 5 A detailed description of psychiatric co-morbidity is always desirable in view of the consideration of Dhat syndrome as an independent psychiatric diagnostic entity.…”

“…A recent nationwide multicentric study from India emphasizes Dhat syndrome to be found across multiple cultures of the country as well as to occur without syndromal depression and anxiety disorders. 7 Some authors argue that Dhat syndrome should not be considered as a 'culture bound syndrome' because of its wider geographic prevalence, rather it should be seen as a culturally determined idiom of distress. 1 A few others see Dhat syndrome as an independent disorder, which has its own clinical manifestations.…”

Comorbidity, knowledge and attitude towards sex among patients with Dhat syndrome: A retrospective study

“…Previous studies on Dhat syndrome have also reported high rates of comorbid axis-I disorder and sexual dysfunction (Behere and Natraj, 1984;Bhatia and Malik, 1991;Chadda and Ahuja, 1990;Grover et al, 2014Grover et al, , 2015Nakra et al, 1977). However these studies have specifically not looked at the sequence of onset of symptoms.…”

“…A recent multicentric study evaluated the prevalence of comorbid disorders in patients with Dhat syndrome and identified comorbid depressive disorders in one-fifth and comorbid anxiety disorders in another one-fifth of the patients. However, half of the patients had comorbid sexual dysfunction (Grover et al, 2015). However, none of these studies have reported the relationship of these comorbid disorders with symptoms of Dhat syndrome with respect to the fact that whether these precede the onset or follow the onset of Dhat syndrome.…”