PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS AMONG ELDERLY PATIENTS IN A GENERAL-HOSPITAL

Objectives: To determine the approximate point prevalence of psychiatr ic disorders among elderly patients in a general hospital and to ascer tain the frequency of mental state examination on admission, psychotro pic drug use and documentation of psychiatric disorder in discharge su mmaries. Method: Weekly enrolment of 10 beds until the entire hospital was screened. Patients aged over 65 years were interviewed with the G eriatric Mental State schedule and psychiatric diagnoses were made usi ng the AGECAT computer program. Patients and setting: Inpatients aged 65 years and over in all wards of a metropolitan teaching hospital ove r 16 months in 1990-1991. Results: Of 495 enrolled patients, 204 were aged over 65 years and 167 of these could be interviewed. Eighteen per cent showed evidence of organic mental impairment, 27% were depressed and 2% had other psychiatric disorders. Some mental state findings we re recorded on admission for 25% of patients, 52% of patients were pre scribed hypnotic or psychotropic drugs and 30% of the psychiatric diso rders identified by the survey were mentioned in the discharge summary . Conclusions: Screening for psychiatric disorders in this setting is not routine. The frequency of such disorders makes it desirable to con duct prospective evaluation of the use of brief cognitive and depressi on screening instruments on admission to hospital.