Mental disorders are one of the leading reasons for disability-related retirement and payment of associated long-term benefits in many countries.

To explore the characteristics of psychiatric outpatients who apply for disability pensions and to investigate the factors associated with making an application.

A four-month cross-sectional evaluation of disability pension and retirement applications to the psychiatry outpatient clinic in a university hospital in Istanbul.

The majority of 144 patients were male (n=102, 70.8%), based in Istanbul, married, living with their families and had no occupation at the time of inquiry. Excluding applications for individuals with a diagnosis of intellectual disability (n=44), most applicants were primary school graduates (n=31, 32.3%). For the whole group, the median age of application was 34. 60%, (n=87) had an established psychiatric diagnosis before the application, with average duration since diagnosis of approximately 8 years. The most frequent diagnoses were intellectual disability, followed by schizophrenia and depression. More than half of the patients were treated only outpatiently, with no hospitalization (n=55, 58%). Thirty-two of them (22.4%) had a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis and 58 (40.3%) had at least one comorbid medical diagnosis.

There are some similarities between our findings and findings from other countries, such as low educational level and frequent comorbid somatic diseases among patients applying for disability pension. In contrast with the literature and as an indicator of social inequality, most patients applied for disability pension were male. The results are reflecting the specificities of different health systems and cultural perceptions of disability.