Evaluation of psychiatry consultations requested for inpatients in a university hospital

Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate the socio-demographic data, psychiatric diagnosis according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) of patients, referral rates of medical and surgical clinics, and reasons for referrals in inpatients who were requesting psychiatric consultation.

Methods: This study was conducted in Afyonkarahisar, in a 530-bed university hospital. For a period of six months, retrospective data was collected from 124 inpatients who had requested psychiatric consultations. Psychiatric diagnoses were based on DSM-IV.

Results: Mean age of patients was 50.1±19.7. Seventy (56.5%) patients were female and 54 (43.5%) were male. The most frequent referral clinics were internal medicine (24.2%), followed by neurology (14.5%), physical medicine (14.5%), and rehabilitation (11.3%) The most frequent reasons for referral were depressive symptoms (21.8%) somatic complaints (17.7%), agitation and non-compliance to treatment (16.1%) and attempted suicides (10.5%). Psychopathology was determined in the majority of patients (86.3%). Regarding the psychiatric diagnoses, adjustment disorders (21%) were the most common ones.

Conclusion: The interaction between psychiatry and other medical clinics is important because psychiatric disorders are more commonly seen among medical and surgical inpatients.