Unrecognized physical illness prompting psychiatric admission: a prospective study.
The authors studied 100 state hospital psychiatric patients consecutively admitted to a research ward who were screened to eliminate physical illness before admission. They found an unusually high incidence of medical illness: 46% of these patients had an unrecognized medical illness that either caused or exacerbated their psychiatric illness, 80% had physical illnesses requiring treatment, and 4% had precancerous conditions or illnesses. A workup consisting of psychiatric and physical examination, SMA-34, urinalysis, ECG, and EEG after sleep deprivation identified over 90% of medical illnesses present in this population. The authors suggest that such a battery be part of the routine workup for all hospitalized psychiatric patients.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014556:Urine / Q000032:analysis