The police in psychiatric daily routine

Purpose: The following is a description of those patients brought by the po lice to the emergency room of a general hospital of Berlin for a psychiatri c exploration. Method: The medical records of those patients brought in to the emergency room during one year were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Within one year, 317 (10.8 %) out of 2903 patients were brought by the poli ce to have an emergency psychiatric exploration. The ratio of men to women was 2:1, and the median age was 41. Most illnesses diagnosed were schizophr enia, disorders caused by psychotropic substances, alcoholism, alcohol into xication, and adjustment disorders/stress disorders. One third of the 317 p atients were under influence of alcohol. 21.8 % of the 317 patients were su icidal. Over hive thirds of the patients were admitted to the psychiatric w ard. Only 31 patients were not admitted to the ward for lack of indication. The most frequent reason for intervention of police was suicidal behaviour (35 %), "strange behaviour" (28.7%) or aggressive behaviour (23 %). Conclu sion: The results show that those patients brought in by the police are in acute crisis situations often involving suicidal tendencies and suffer from more severe psychiatric illnesses. The psychiatric emergency exploration i nitiated by the police was generally justifiable.