1. Patient-disease characteristics and coping strategies predict hospitalization in emergency psychiatry
- Author
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Hanspeter Mörgeli, Edgar Heim, Ladislav Valach, and Ulrich Schnyder
- Subjects
Adult ,Hospitals, Psychiatric ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Coping (psychology) ,Referral ,Patients ,medicine.medical_treatment ,03 medical and health sciences ,Psychiatric history ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Adaptation, Psychological ,medicine ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Prospective Studies ,Psychiatry ,Emergency Services, Psychiatric ,business.industry ,030503 health policy & services ,Public health ,Mental Disorders ,05 social sciences ,Disposition ,Prognosis ,Mental health ,Hospitalization ,050106 general psychology & cognitive sciences ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Emergency medicine ,Emergency psychiatry ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Crisis intervention - Abstract
Objective: The goal of this study was to analyze how far patient-disease characteristics (sociodemographic variables, previous psychiatric treatment, way of referral, the patient's current diagnosis), and the patient's coping strategies are connected with the consecutive disposition for inpatient or outpatient treatment. Methods: Data from a one-year intake of the psychiatric emergency service at a University Hospital ( N = 1439) were monitored and analyzed with regard to the decision on treatment. Four hundred eighty-one patients were hospitalized and 530 were assigned to outpatient treatment. Two subsamples of twenty-eight patients from each group filled out the Bernese Coping Modes questionnaire before the decision with regard to the treatment disposition was taken. Results: The patient's psychiatric history, the way of referral as well as the current axis I diagnosis made a significant contribution to the treatment decision. Overall, patient-disease characteristics allowed for correct classification of 69.3 percent of cases. However, coping was a comparable predictor of hospitalization. Conclusions: It is argued that the search for patient-disease characteristics in the psychiatric emergency room should be complemented by a more extensive monitoring of the patients' way of coping with their current crisis.
- Published
- 1999