Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1416-1419
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Determinants of emergency psychiatric admission for adolescents and adults
JR Hillard, M Slomowitz and J Deddens
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati, OH.
The authors compared correlates of admission for 100 patients older than 18
years and 100 patients younger than 18 evaluated in a psychiatric emergency
service. Stepwise linear logistic regression analysis identified a
combination of variables that best predicted the odds of hospitalization
for each group. For adolescents, these variables, in order of importance,
were suicidal tendencies, physical abuse, a primary diagnosis of
schizophrenia, age, and number of suicide attempts. For adults, the
variables were delusions, aggressive behavior, suicidal tendencies, and a
primary diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder. The authors
discuss the implications of these findings for acute psychiatric treatment
of adolescents.
