Objectives: Although conduct disorder is one of the most common diagnoses in youths admitted to psychiatric emergency service, little is known about predictors of those, who need hospitalization. In this 6-month retrospective study, we aimed to identify predictors of hospitalization for conduct disorder (CD) in adolescents seen in emergency room of a mental health hospital.
Method: Adolescents with CD were evaluated by age, gender, school status, family structure, presenting symptoms (aggression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-harm behavior), duration of presenting symptoms, comorbid psychiatric diagnoses, history of emergency service or outpatient clinic application, previous psychiatric inpatient treatment and family history of mental disorders, according to first admission to emergency room during the study period.
Results: Mean age was 15.69±1.26 (12-17) years and 61.8% (n=89) were female. Of the total of 144 patients, 50 (34.7%) were hospitalized. After controlling for the age, gender, school status, family structure, presenting symptoms (aggression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-harm behavior), duration of presenting symptoms, having a comorbid psychiatric disorder, history of emergency service or outpatient clinic application, previous psychiatric inpatient treatment and family history of mental disorders, we found that suicidal ideation (B:2.110; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 2.690-25.315; p<0.0001), having a comorbid psychiatric disorder (B:1.623; 95% CI, 1.986-12.944; p=0.001) and having family history of a mental disorder (B:1.314; 95% CI, 1.433-9.668; p=0.007) were the independent predictors of hospital admissions for CD in adolescents seen in emergency room.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that clinicians in emergency settings should be aware of the prediction of hospitalization in adolescents with CD who have suicidal ideation, a comorbid psychiatric disorder and family history of a mental disorder.