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Introduction: Prolonged hospitalization in patients can cause irreversible changes in functional status, changes in quality of life and complications unrelated to the problem at admission and secondary to the presence of alterations in mental health status. Objectives: To determine the appearance of symptoms of anxiety and depression in adult men with an organic disease or trauma who were in prolonged hospitalization at a tertiary care hospital in Southwestern Colombia. Methodology: This is a descriptive longitudinal study. The population consisted of men between 18 and 65 years of age that were hospitalized for at least eight days on surgical and internal medicine wards. Thirty-seven patients were included whom were given the HAD and BDI scales on three occasions (A1, A2, A3), along with a test that included socio-demographic and hospitalization data. Results: A total of 97.3% of the patients were hospitalized between 8 and 57 days. At A1 anxiety was found to be present in 43.2% of the population studied. At A2 anxiety symptoms were identified among 32.4% of the population and at A3 among 24.3% of the population. Symptoms of depression were found for 43.2% of the population at A1, for 43.2% of patients at A2 and among 35.1% of the patients at A3. Conclusions: If symptoms of anxiety and depression were determined to be present during the period of prolonged hospitalization, those which significantly rebounded in their general health status extensively altered their mental condition. Nursing care should be directed toward a vision of integrity, timely detection, monitoring and ongoing evaluation for these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]