The dependent patient in a psychiatric inpatient setting: Relationship of interpersonal dependency to consultation and medication frequencies

To examine the relationship between interpersonal dependency and medical se rvice use in a hospital setting, the number of medical consultations and ps ychotropic medication prescriptions were compared in matched, mixed-sex sam ples oi 40 dependent and 40 nondependent psychiatric inpatients. Results in dicated that dependent patients received more medical consultations and a g reater number of medications than did nondependent patients with similar de mographic and diagnostic profiles. Implications oi these results for theore tical models oi interpersonal dependency and for previous research on the d ependency-help-seeking relationship are discussed. Practical implications o f these findings for work with dependent patients are summarized. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.