Abstract
Objective:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of children and adolescents who were treated in the psychiatric inpatient unit of Istanbul Medical Faculty with a retrospective file screen design.
Method:
Medical records of children and adolescents who were treated in the psychiatric inpatient unit between January 1st, 2004 and June 1st, 2009 were evaluated retrospectively.
Results:
Eighty four inpatient subjects (53 females and 31 males) were recruited. The mean ages of male and female patients were 16.5 and 16.4 years, respectively. Fifty seven (67.9%) subjects were continuing their education while 27 (32.1%) had left their education during or before high school. The mean duration of hospitalization was 22.2 ± 17.48 days. The maximum length of stay in hospital was found to be caused by the diagnosis of substance use disorders. As for psychotropic medication use, the rate of polypharmacy was 65.5% while the rate of monopharmacy was 27.4%. Antipsychotics were the most commonly used drugs. The most frequent symptoms as the cause of hospitalization were suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Mood disorders, psychotic disorders and dissociative disorders were the most common psychiatric diagnoses. Psychotic disorders were the most common diagnoses in males (45.2%) while mood and dissociative disorders were the most common ones in female patients (28.3% and 28.3%, respectively).
Discussion:
There is a limited number of child and adolescent inpatient mental health services in our country. Therefore, patients within this age group are usually admitted to adult psychiatric inpatient units for treatment. Increasing our knowledge and sharing experiences related to clinical and sociodemographic features of inpatient children and adolescents will make significant contributions.
Keywords: Adolescent, inpatient treatment, socio-demographic data, clinical features
