Psychiatric Emergency Services a Decade Later

Abstract

The changes in the functioning of the psychiatric component of a general hospital emergency room were assessed over the past decade. The effect of its incorporation into a community mental health center as its emergency service was seen to exert a significant increase in its utilization. Admissions increased threefold over the ten year period and the 15–21 age group increased by twice that amount. Analysis of census and social class data showed a significant effect of distance on only the lower socioeconomic groups. Diagnostic and dispositional shifts were seen as showing an increase in utilization by less disturbed patients who use the emergency room as their primary treatment resource. The rise in the drug addictions is striking and may mask other diagnoses.