A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY ON LENGTH OF HOSPITAL STAYS OF ELDERLY MEDICAL-SURGICAL INPATIENTS

To determine the difference in length of hospital stay for geriatric m edical-surgical inpatients with or without psychiatric comorbidity, th e authors prospectively interviewed 467 admissions by using the Struct ured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R and the Mini-Mental State Exam. At admission, 208 (44.5%) inpatients had a current psychiatric comorbi dity, 51(10.9%) had an anxiety disorder 88 (18.8%) had a depressive di sorder and 126 (27%) had cognitive impairment. The patients with cogni tive impairment had a significantly prolonged hospital stay compared w ith those without cognitive impairment (14.6 vs. 10.6 days). No differ ence existed in length of stay for the patients with and without anxie ty disorders (11.6 vs. 11.6 days) or depressive disorders (11.0 vs. 11 .8 days), In view of the limited resources available for screening eld erly medical-surgical inpatients for psychiatric comorbidity, this stu dy suggests the utility of identifying cognitive impairment and target ing it for interventions to reduce the clinical burden and to decrease hospital stays.