The authors studied 100 state hospital psychiatric patients
consecutively admitted to a research ward who were screened to eliminate
physical illness before admission. They found an unusually high incidence
of medical illness: 46% of these patients had an unrecognized medical
illness that either caused or exacerbated their psychiatric illness, 80%
had physical illnesses requiring treatment, and 4% had precancerous
conditions or illnesses. A workup consisting of psychiatric and physical
examination, SMA-34, urinalysis, ECG, and EEG after sleep deprivation
identified over 90% of medical illnesses present in this population. The
authors suggest that such a battery be part of the routine workup for all
hospitalized psychiatric patients.
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