A descriptive study of a unique multi-ethnic consultation-liaison psychiatry service in Honolulu, Hawaii.
OBJECTIVE
To provide a descriptive characterization of the CL Psychiatry service at a major medical center in Honolulu, Hawaii. We hypothesized differing demographic trends than seen nationally and internationally, an increasing prevalence of elderly and substance abusing patients, and increasing consultation requests related to these issues.


METHODS
Retrospective data was gathered from 180 randomly selected patient records, identified as having a request for inpatient psychiatric consultation on the medical-surgical floors during identical 3-month periods in 2000 and 2005. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square and ANOVA were used to compare differences across time.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences by age, reason for referral, or diagnoses between the 2 years. Patients age 65 years and older accounted for only 16.6% of the consults. Caucasians accounted for 45.6% of consultations despite low prevalence rates in the population. Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (15%), Japanese (12.5%), Filipino (5.6%), and other Asians (10.6%) accounted for the majority of remaining patients. Depression/anxiety (27.4%), alcohol/drugs (21.8%), and agitation/ psychosis (20.5%) were the most frequent reasons for consultation. Substance use (32.5%), mood (16%), and cognitive (14.1%) disorders were the top diagnoses.


CONCLUSIONS
As expected, the patient demographic data reflects a unique patient population served by the QMC CL service. Much of the consultation process, diagnoses, and treatment, however, are in line with our Mainland counterparts. There were no major differences in trends over time.
Muramatsu
Russ S
RS
Department of Psychiatry, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96813, USA. muramatsur@dop.hawaii.com
Goebert
Deborah
D
Sweeny
Henry W
HW
Takeshita
Junji
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii / Q000453:epidemiology; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012189:Retrospective Studies