Inadvertent hospitalization - association between diagnosis and age

Background

This study describes the most common causes that influence the judgment (consciousness) of a psychic patient to comprehend their pathological status in order for them to willingly ask for their hospitalization.

Therefore it is only the District Attorney who can ask for their hospitalization after the patient's relatives' application.

Additionally we study the age in which most inadvertent hospitalizations occur.

Materials and methods

We studied 442 inadvertent hospitalizations in a private psychiatric institute during the period of 2000 - 2006.

We categorized the patients into three categories.

The first category was consistent by inadvertent admitted patients, after being diagnosed of schizophrenic disorder or psychosis, the second category was consistent by patients admitted after being diagnosed of bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder and the third category was consistent by patients diagnosed of organic-psychotic syndrome.

Results

352 patients (percentage 79,63%), were inadvertently admitted by the diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychotic disorder, 80 of them (percentage 18,10%) by the diagnosis of bipolar or schizoaffective disorder and 10 of them (percentage 2,27%), by the diagnosis of organic- psychotic syndrome.

96 patients (21,72%) were between 20-30 years old, 173 (39,14%) between 31-40 years old, 91 (20,58%) between 41-50 years old, 48 (10,8%) between 51-60 years old and 34 (7,70%) between 61-70 years old.

Conclusions

The severe psychotic incidents of the schizophrenic range are the most common cause of inadvertent hospitalization and follow the incidents of bipolar disorder, while in the ages of 31–40 most inadvertent hospitalizations take place.