ABSTRACT
Nineteen patients who left a short-term psychiatric crisis unit against medical advice were compared with 109 patients who received a regular discharge during a six-month period. Demographic, historic, assessment, and diagnostic variables of both groups were examined. Results indicated that patients diagnosed as having personality or substance use disorders and patients judges abnormal on a mental status examination were more likely to be AMA patients. However, AMA patients indicated fewer social problems as rated on Linn's Social Dysfunction Scale. It was concluded that diagnostic variables best differentiated patients leaving the treatment unit against medical advice from those who completed treatment.
Subject(s)
Emergency Services, Psychiatric/statistics & numerical data , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Health Services/statistics & numerical data , Patient Discharge , Patient Dropouts/psychology , Psychiatric Department, Hospital/statistics & numerical data , Crisis Intervention , Humans , Personality Disorders/epidemiology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Social Adjustment , Substance-Related Disorders/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Admission rates to a medical detoxification ward of a general hospital were examined for periods during a beer and a liquor strike and equivalent length periods before and after each strike. They were also compared to analogous periods during a non-strike year. Results indicated that admissions were lowered during the liquor but not the beer strike, a finding which is consistent with an earlier report that overall alcohol consumption was lowered during the liquor but not the beer strike. This finding indicates that there is a positive association between amount of alcohol consumed by the general public and an index of severe alcohol abuse. No subgroup of the detoxification population was identified as being responsible for the reduced admissions.
Subject(s)
Alcoholism/rehabilitation , Hospital Units/statistics & numerical data , Hospitalization/trends , Inactivation, Metabolic , Strikes, Employee , Alcoholic Beverages , Commerce , Humans , ManitobaABSTRACT
A group of male forensic psychiatric patients was compared to groups of non-forensic psychiatric patients, hospitalized alcoholics and general hospital admissions on a modified version of the self-administered Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test. Results indicated more alcoholic related problems in both psychiatric groups than the general hospital group, but less than for the hospitalized alcoholics. The scores of the two psychiatric groups, however, did not differ significantly. It was concluded that alcoholism was non-additively associated with both criminality and psychiatric disturbance. It was suggested that the degree of alcohol related problems in psychiatric populations warrants careful screening and treatment even when alcoholism is not reflected in the psychiatric diagnosis.
