Does psychiatric comorbidity increase the length of stay in medical, surgical and gynecological departments?

Several studies from anglo-american countries indicate that in non-psychiat ric hospital departments mentally ill patients have a longer length of hosp ital slay than mentally well, while in Austria and Germany, until now, no s tudies concerning this question exist. Therefore, we investigated the influ ence of psychiatric comorbidity on the length of stay in 608 patients of me dical, surgical and gynecological departments in Vienna and Tyrol. Based on the Clinical Interview Schedule, 28.1% of the patients in this sample suff ered from psychiatric disorders. The presence of psychiatric disorders, as well as type of hospital department (medical department), higher age, more previous non-psychiatric treatment periods, and more somatic diagnoses pred icted a longer duration of inpatient treatment. To avoid the influence of c ofounding variables, psychiatric cases were matched with psychiatric non-ca ses. The mentally ill group was treated for a markedly longer period as inp atients than the mentally well. Patients with a diagnosis of dementia or of substance abuse showed a significantly increased length of stay, while we could not confirm this for other psychiatric diagnoses.