Admissions for personality disorders in Italy from 1988 to 1998.
BACKGROUND
Personality disorders affect a substantial proportion of the population. It is unclear, however, whether the burden of personality disorders on modern mental health services has been increasing. To fill this gap, we analyzed trends in admissions for personality disorders in Italy from 1988 to 1998.


METHODS
We used the yearly data from the Italian Central Institute of Statistics to analyse trends in the total number of admissions for personality disorders and in the total number of first admissions for personality disorders.


RESULTS
The absolute number of admissions for personality disorders almost trebled from 1988 to 1998, as well as the proportion of all psychiatric admissions that were for personality disorders. Whilst there has been a marked increase in the absolute number of first admissions, the proportion of all first psychiatric admissions that were for personality disorders showed a steady but modest increase, from 5.7% to 7.6%.


CONCLUSIONS
In Italy, the burden of personality disorders on modern mental health services has been increasing. In terms of public health, these findings highlight the urgent need of developing policies to tackle the increasing demand of care of this difficult-to-treat patient population.
Guaiana
Giuseppe
G
Clinica Psichiatrica Cantonale, Organizzazione Sociopsichiatrica Cantonale, Via Maspoli, Mendrisio, Canton Ticino, Switzerland. giuseppe_guaiana@hotmail.com
Barbui
Corrado
C