Psychiatric disorders among elderly patients in a general hospital.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the approximate point prevalence of psychiatric disorders among elderly patients in a general hospital and to ascertain the frequency of mental state examination on admission, psychotropic drug use and documentation of psychiatric disorder in discharge summaries.


METHODS
Weekly enrollment of 10 beds until the entire hospital was screened. Patients aged over 65 years were interviewed with the Geriatric Mental State schedule and psychiatric diagnoses were made using the AGECAT computer program.


METHODS
Inpatients aged 65 years and over in all wards of a metropolitan teaching hospital over 16 months in 1990-1991.


RESULTS
Of 495 enrolled patients, 204 were aged over 65 years and 167 of these could be interviewed. Eighteen per cent showed evidence of organic mental impairment, 27% were depressed and 2% had other psychiatric disorders. Some mental state findings were recorded on admission for 25% of patients, 52% of patients were prescribed hypnotic or psychotropic drugs and 30% of the psychiatric disorders identified by the survey were mentioned in the discharge summary.


CONCLUSIONS
Screening for psychiatric disorders in this setting is not routine. The frequency of such disorders makes it desirable to conduct prospective evaluation of the use of brief cognitive and depression screening instruments on admission to hospital.
Ames
D
D
University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Vic.
Tuckwell
V
V
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008511:Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013038:Specialization
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs