TB like any other chronic infection needs prolonged treatment. It also carries a social stigma and results in adverse psychological reactions. The study details the pattern of psychiatric morbidity among patients sufferings from TB. The study group includes 50 out-patients of pulmonary TB attending Guru Teg Bahadur TB hospital in Delhi with the mean age of 28.3 years (range 11-55 years). Their socio-demongraphic and clinical details were noted on a semi-structured proforma. These patients were then interviewed in detail and specialist’s opinion and relevant investigations were obtained whenever required. Diagnosis of psychiatric disorder was made according to ICD 10 (International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition). The male and female sex ratio was 3:1.

Thirty nine patients (78%) had associated psychiatric disorders; the commonest being mixed anxiety and depressive disorders. The remaining 22% did not have any psychiatric disorders.

The TB patients showed a higher degree of psychiatric disorder like denial, hopelessness about life, fear of being neglected by the spouse, family and society. This could be because of the nature of illness, prolonged treatment, social stigma, misconception about illness, reactions of family members and economical stress.

More studies are warranted with a larger sample size to find out the causation and pattern of psycho-social disturbance among patients sufferings from TB and other chronic physical illness.