title: Patterns of psychiatric consultations in Kuwait general hospitals.
abstract: Two hundred and nineteen consecutive referrals to psychiatric consultation services from all general hospitals in Kuwait over a 3-month period were studied and compared with a control group of 100 patients who were not referred for psychiatric consultation. The two groups differed significantly in age, sex, marital status, employment, and past psychiatric treatment. Inpatients were more often referred than outpatients with an overall low referral rate of 0.3%. The department of general medicine referred 74.4% of patients in contrast to 11.4% referred by the department of general surgery. The most common reason for referral was for assessment of a suicide attempt in the inpatient group, and the absence of organic cause for patients' physical symptoms in the outpatient group. Acute situational disturbance that resulted in a suicide attempt was the most common psychiatric diagnosis (26%), followed by depressive illness (19.5%) and organic psychotic disorders (8.2%). Our findings are similar to those reported in the literature, and the present study suggests a national underutilization of psychiatric consultation services in general hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: al-Ansari
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: el-Hilu
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: el-Hihi
authors.forename: K I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012803:Sick Role; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D000092864:Suicide Prevention