Psychiatric illness in a general urban emergency room: daytime versus nighttime population.
Two hundred adults presenting to the emergency room of an urban general hospital were interviewed by a standardized technique to evaluate the existence of a current or previous psychiatric illness. Half of the subjects presented between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (daytime group), and 100 presented between 12:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. (nighttime group). In the nighttime population 65% were judged to have current or past psychiatric illnesses. In the daytime population only 36% had current or past psychiatric illnesses. The differences between the 2 populations was highly significant. Fewer than 10% of the 200 patients presented with neuropsychiatric symptoms in their chief complaints.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013997:Time Factors