title: Psychiatric diagnosis in self-poisoning patients.
abstract: The Present State Examination was administered to 539 patients who attended a casualty department after an act of self-poisoning during the course of a year. Computer analysis by means of the Catego program showed that 30% of the patients had insufficient symptoms to be considered as psychiatric 'cases'. Fewer than 4% had symptoms of functional psychosis. About 60% of the patients were classed as depressed: on several indices this group was less severely ill than a group of depressives feceiving psychiatric treatment. It is suggested that psychiatric treatment is essential for only a small proportion of self-poisoning patients. The effectiveness of psychiatric treatment for the large group of patients with depressive disorders of minor severity and probably short duration has still to be evaluated.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011041:Poisoning / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*