Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:1484-1486
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
The use of DSM-III axis III in recording physical illness in psychiatric patients
R Maricle, P Leung and JD Bloom
Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland 97201.
The randomly selected charts of 50 discharged psychiatric inpatients were
reviewed for documentation of medical illness and DSM-III axis III
diagnoses. Twenty-eight percent of the patients had had medical symptoms,
56% had had medical findings, 36% had had laboratory findings, and 60% had
been given axis III diagnoses. In at least seven cases, the medical
findings were poorly reflected in the final axis III diagnosis. In no case
did the record indicate that medical factors were viewed as the cause of a
patient's immediate psychiatric syndrome.
