Determinants of emergency psychiatric admission for adolescents and adults

Abstract

The authors compared correlates of admission for 100 patients older than 18 years and 100 patients younger than 18 evaluated in a psychiatric emergency service. Stepwise linear logistic regression analysis identified a combination of variables that best predicted the odds of hospitalization for each group. For adolescents, these variables, in order of importance, were suicidal tendencies, physical abuse, a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia, age, and number of suicide attempts. For adults, the variables were delusions, aggressive behavior, suicidal tendencies, and a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for acute psychiatric treatment of adolescents.