Introduction:

The diagnosis of schizophrenia has experienced a remarkable increase in recent years.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia in the department of Caldas, Colombia, between 2010 and 2015, and to describe its epidemiological profile in this area of the country.

Materials and methods:

Retrospective and descriptive study. Information on the number of patients treated and the number of consultations in which the diagnosis or reason for consultation was related to schizophrenia diagnostic codes (ICD-10) in Caldas between 2010 and 2015 was analyzed. Data were obtained from the Territorial Health Management Office of Caldas and the Individual Health Service Provision Records of the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection. Annual incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia for the study period were established and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the number of consultations and the number of patients treated according to the type of schizophrenia, with a significance level of p (α) <0.05.

Results:

During the study period, 7 583 consultations were made, and 3 264 patients were treated due to schizophrenia in Caldas. The prevalence of schizophrenia in 2010 was 0.03% and in 2015, 0.11%. The cumulative incidence shown a marked upward trend, finding 834 new cases of schizophrenia between 2010 and 2015 (256 vs. 1 090), with an incidence of 70 cases per 100 000 inhabitants in 2015. The most frequent types of schizophrenia were paranoid and undifferentiated schizophrenia (2 250 and 560, respectively).

Conclusions:

The marked increase in the prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia in the study period may be explained by several factors; thus, it is necessary to review its epidemiological profile in other departments of the country as a first step to identify the factors associated with its occurrence in the Colombian population.

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