RESULTS Majority of cases (95%) were below 40 years. The average age was 29 years, with minimum of 14 and maximum 50. Two of them were separated after the husband had gone abroad. Most of the subjects were: Mongols, Brahmins, and indigenous Terai tribes by caste/ethnicities

and Hindu, Buddhist, and Kirat by religion [Table 1]. Table 1 Socio-demographic profiles of psychiatric help seeking wives of Nepalese men working abroad-I: Age, marital status, caste/ ethnicity, and religion Significant proportions of these female Nepalese patients were illiterate or less educated. Majority of them were homemakers, only a few employed. One-third of the patients were brought by family and this website about two-fifths referred from other specialties/departments of the institute [Table 2]. Table 2 Socio-demographic profiles of psychiatric help seeking wives of Nepalese men working abroad-II: Education, occupation, residential setting, and referral source Mood, anxiety, somatic, and physical symptoms were the most common symptoms [Table 3]. Table 3 Clinical profiles of psychiatric help seeking wives of Nepalese men working abroad-III:

Duration, onset, course of illness, and presenting complaints* The countries where the husbands of the most number of these Nepalese female psychiatric patients selleck work were Saudi

Arab, India, Qatar, and Malaysia [Figure 1]. Figure 1 Countries where their husband worked More than a half of these subjects had reported other precipitating stressors too, the most common being strained interpersonal relationship, recent major Oxymatrine life events, and health problems [Table 4]. Table 4 Types of stressors reported by the female patients* Thirty-five patients had a significant mental illness, mainly mood disorders in their past and almost similar number had in their close blood relatives [Table 5]. Table 5 Past and family history of illness among psychiatric help seeking wives of Nepalese men working abroad* Nearly half of these mentally ill Nepalese women pre-morbidly used substances, mainly alcohol and nicotine [Figure 2]. Figure 2 Substance abuse among the subjects* About one-fourth had some personality traits affecting the clinical course of their illness [Figure 3]. Almost half had comorbid physical diseases; mainly neurological, gynecological, and gastrointestinal diseases [Figure 4]. “Mood affective” and “anxiety, neurotic, and stress-related disorders” were the most common psychiatric diagnoses. Deliberate self-harm/suicide attempts were main problem among 11% of these women [Table 6].