Use of emergency department services for somatic reasons by people with serious mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
This study identified factors associated with use of the emergency department for medical reasons among individuals with serious mental illness.


METHODS
A total of 200 randomly selected outpatients who were receiving community-based psychiatric care were recruited for the study and interviewed with items from the National Health Interview Survey and other national health surveys.


RESULTS
Emergency department use (37 percent of the sample) was negatively associated with older age and positively associated with the number of co-occurring medical conditions, smoking, recent injury, and recent change in health care provider.


CONCLUSIONS
The relatively high rate of emergency department use may be suggestive of inappropriate use or may reflect perceived barriers to care. Future work should identify specific reasons for seeking care in the emergency department and develop interventions to optimize appropriate emergency department use.
Hackman
Ann L
AL
Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore 21201, USA.
Goldberg
Richard W
RW
Brown
Clayton H
CH
Fang
Li Juan
LJ
Dickerson
Faith B
FB
Wohlheiter
Karen
K
Medoff
Deborah R
DR
Kreyenbuhl
Julie A
JA
Dixon
Lisa
L
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D013001:Somatoform Disorders