In 2010, mental and substance use disorders accounted for 7.4% of all disability-adjusted life years and 22.9% of all years lived with disability worldwide. The burden of mental and substance use disorders increased by 37.6% between 1990 and 2010, which for most disorders was driven by population growth and aging (Whiteford et al., 2013). Neurotic disorders are a group of common mental disorders that affect health and quality of life, which have imposed an immense burden on individuals, families, communities, and health (Herrman & Chopra, 2009; Nilsson, Bogren, Mattisson, & Nettelbladt, 2007). The population with neurotic disorders is estimated to be five times that of severe psychotic disorders (Dupont et al., 1996; Greenberg et al., 1999). With the rapid development of society, there has been an increasing tendency toward neurotic disorders. Among outpatients in primary care, 20–40% of outpatients were initially diagnosed as having neurotic disorders (Ansseau et al., 2004; Nisenson, Pepper, Schwenk, & Coyne, 1998). In community-based epidemiological studies in China (Li et al., 1998; Zhang et al., 2006; Zhou, Zhang, Jiang, & Wang, 2000), the prevalence of neurotic disorders was reported to be 2.2%, 2.8%, and 13.4% in 1993, 2000, and 2005, respectively. In Chinese general hospitals, a large number of patients suffering from physical and mental disorders come to outpatient departments to seek care. Due to Chinese traditions of viewing the body and mind as unitary rather than dualistic, patients tend to focus more on physical discomforts than emotional symptoms, leading to an overrepresentation of somatic complaints (Lin & Cheung, 1999). It was found that 90% of patients with neurotic disorders were repeatedly seen by physicians from nonpsychiatric departments in general hospitals over an approximate time of 1 year. Furthermore, the time until diagnosis was delayed by 3–5 years for some patients (Wang, 2002). It is important for healthcare providers to learn about the distribution and correlates of neurotic disorders in this patient population. However, a lack of knowledge is a major obstacle to the treatment and recovery of patients with mental disorders (Lin, Spiga, & Fortsch, 1979; McEvoy et al., 1989; Schwartz, Cohen, & Grubaugh, 1997; Yen, Yeh, Chen, & Chung, 2002). Socio-demographic correlates to neurotic disorders have been explored in various populations. With regard to age, there were no consistent findings across studies. In community studies, the prevalence of neurotic disorders took on a rising trend with age, and the high-risk age was 70–79 years (Zhou et al., 2000). Neurotic disorders mainly occurred in people aged 40–59 years, with a peak prevalence at age 45–49 years (Zhang et al., 2005). In contrast, Li et al. found the prevalence of neurotic disorders decreased with age, with an increased risk between the ages of 18 and 24 years (Li et al., 2008). Additionally, epidemiological surveys consistently indicate that gender, the level of education, and marital status are significantly related to diagnoses of psychiatric disorders. These findings suggest more neurotic disorders among women, individuals with less education, and individuals identifying themselves as being divorced or widowed (Li et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2000). The previous published studies on psychiatric disorders have been conducted either in rural settings (Kishore, Reddaiah, Kapoor, & Gill, 1997; Pothen, Kuruvilla, Philip, Joseph, & Jacob, 2003) or in specific departments of general hospitals (Channabasavanna, Sriram, & Kumar, 1995; Shamasundar, Krishnamurthy, Prakash, Prabhakar, & Subbakrishna, 1986). Among general medical outpatients, whether the prevalence and population distribution of neurotic disorders are the same as the findings in community or specific settings needs to be studied. Currently, the relationship between socio-demographics and neurotic disorders among general outpatients in hospitals still remains unclear. In China, the first national mental health law of 2012 came into force on May 1, 2013. A major contribution of this new law is a call to expand access to mental health services by shifting services from urban psychiatric hospitals to general hospitals and community health clinics in both urban and rural communities (Phillips, 2013). This underscores the importance of early identification and treatment of mental disorders. To date, little research has focused on screening for neurotic disorders among general medical outpatients in China. There is still a lack of evidence to provide guidelines for general healthcare providers in identifying which patients are at highest risk for neurotic disorders. In the United States, there are valid screening tools of mental disorders available for use in primary care settings. Screening in primary care settings in China remains a challenge. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, & Kaemmer, 1989) is one of the most widely used clinical assessment instruments in mental health and is often used in primary care settings. Tellegen et al. (2003) developed the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical Scales (RCSs) to address item redundancy and increase the independence of each scale in order to provide more valid indicators of pathology. Although the MMPI has been cited as clinically valid in the Chinese culture, studies in China have also found that scores were consistently elevated in the MMPI and MMPI-2, calling into question the cultural differences that contribute to diverse normative samples. Future studies should focus on further validation of the MMPI-2 to examine possible deficiencies in the translated version of the measure (Cheung, Cheung, & Zhang, 2004). The purpose of this study was to (a) identify the lifetime prevalence and population distribution of neurotic disorders among general medical outpatients in Xi’an China, and (b) explore the association between socio-demographic factors and neurotic disorders.