Use of psychiatric services by patients referred to a consultation unit.
The psychiatric case registers for the hospital catchment area were examined to determine the use of psychiatric services over a 14-year period by a 4-year cohort of consecutive inpatient referrals to the consultation-liaison service of a British general hospital. Two-thirds of the subjects had no other psychiatric care during the survey period, but a third made considerable use of a wide range of specialist psychiatric services. Alcohol problems and dementia were notably associated with complex history of psychiatric management. Management of patients with repeated episodes of psychiatric care requires close collaboration with other services.
Mayou
R
R
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK.
Simkin
S
S
Cobb
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*