Disposition of psychiatric emergency patients: patient characteristics associated with hospitalization

A study was conducted in February and March 1976 to determine those characteristics of psychiatric patients seen in a general emergency department which were associated with a subsequent hospitalization. Two hundred eighteen patients were rated on a questionnaire which covered demographic data, social history and support system, present illness, compliance, diagnosis, and disposition. Sixty-four percent of patients were evaluated by psychiatric residents. The remaining patients were interviewed by non-doctoral psychiatric workers and subsequently reexamined by residents. The data show that overall severity of illness and lack of preceding psychiatric treatment, as well as difficulties in management, are related to the hospitalization of psychotic patients. In nonpsychotic patients, hospitalization was more often related to the presence of depression and solitary living conditions than to the overall severity of symptoms.