Involuntary Psychiatric Hospitalization: How Patient Characteristics Affect Decision-Making.

Emergency department (ED) psychiatrists face the consequential decision to pursue involuntary inpatient psychiatric admission. Research on the relationship between patient characteristics and the decision to pursue involuntary psychiatric admission is limited. Using data from 2017 to 2018 at an urban Los Angeles hospital, we used generalized linear mixed effects models to compare patients who were involuntarily admitted to inpatient psychiatry to patients who were discharged from the ED. Of 2,448 patients included in the study, 1,217 (49.7%) were involuntarily admitted to inpatient psychiatry and 1,231 (50.3%) were discharged. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, admitted patients were more likely to have been brought in by police, have had an organized suicide plan or recent attempt, physical signs of harm, psychosis, depression or hopelessness, lack social support, have diagnoses of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and be administered injectable psychotropic medications. Stimulant use, a diagnosis of anxiety or developmental disorders, and recent medical ED utilization were associated with discharge. Psychiatrists pursued involuntarily psychiatric hospitalization based on factors potentially indicative of dangerousness, leaving patients, particularly those with recent substance use, without immediate access to treatment. Policies should focus on increasing follow up to high quality, voluntary outpatient mental health care.

National and State Estimates of COPD Morbidity and Mortality - United States, 2014-2015.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a leading cause of disability and death in the United States. The "COPD in the United States" project gathered data about the impact of COPD to highlight variability across states and provide a single point of access to data for state decision makers, the public health community and advocates. This report provides a summary of COPD-related morbidity and mortality in the United States and individual states during 2014-2015 (some metrics contain data from other years). Methods: We used data from multiple sources ( the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System [BRFSS], the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research online database, the CDC's chronic disease indicators data, Centers from Medicare and Medicaid Services Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse, Medical Expenditures Panel Survey and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Pulmonary Rehabilitation Directory) to estimate 10 national and state-specific COPD metrics (prevalence, hospitalizations and emergency department visits, 30-day hospital readmissions, mortality, vaccinations, smoking prevalence, per capita medical cost, and the number of COPD patients per a pulmonary rehabilitation program) and to calculate average score across the 10 metrics. Additionally, we used BRFSS data to calculate the prevalence of common comorbid diseases among people who also report having a diagnosis of COPD. Results: During 2014-2015, 5.9% of adults (more than 15.9 million) reported having been told by their health care professional that they had COPD. The age-adjusted prevalence ranged from 3.7% for Puerto Rico and Hawaii, to 12% for West Virginia. The average score, 1 being best and 5 being worst, of the overall COPD burden based on the 10 key metrics ranged from 1.5 for Puerto Rico and Utah to 4.6 for West Virginia. Conclusion: The level of COPD morbidity and mortality is severe throughout the United States. There is considerable variability in COPD metrics by state. These differences may be useful in identifying and addressing policy gaps in the public health approach to COPD and in implementing the COPD National Action Plan.