Neutropenia among psychiatric in-patients.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the frequency of neutropenia in psychiatric patients.


METHODS
We conducted this study by retrospectively taking a convenient sample from patients who were admitted to Al-Amal Complex for Mental Health (ACMH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January to December 2004. Fifty-one patients (48 men and 3 women), with a mean age of 34 years (18-52 years) were included.


RESULTS
We found that there is a large difference between the rates of neutropenia in the general population (12.8 cases/million persons/year), obtained from international studies, and in psychiatric inpatients included in our study (26400 cases/million psychiatric patients/year).


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric patients are more vulnerable to develop neutropenia.
Department of Psychiatry, Al-Amal Complex for Mental Health, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tel. +966 505471410. Fax. +966 (1) 4864598. E-mail: ranamlah@hotmail.com.
Riyadh A
RA
Al-Namlah
Mohamed M
MM
Al-Qahtani
Hadeel F
HF
Daghash