Characteristics of Psychiatric Visits to the Emergency Department of Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Background: More psychiatric visits, especially non-emergency ones, to emergency departments (EDs) of general hospitals have been observed in recent years. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of psychiatric visits to the ED of Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, during a two-month period, all psychiatric presentations and consultations to the ED of the studied hospital were included. The required data were gathered by psychiatry chief residents and were documented in pre-designed checklists. Results: About 0.01% of all patients presenting to the ED needed the psychiatric visits. Men consisted 50% of the total patients with mean (±SD) age of 36.41 (±14.7) years. About 51% of them had the indication of the emergency psychiatric visit while 47% had the indication of hospitalization in the psychiatric ward. Non-emergency visits were not related to demographic characteristic, previous psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and physical diseases Conclusions: Non-emergency visits take a high percentage of psychiatric visits in ED and regarding limited sources for psychiatric emergencies and Long visiting time, this percentage can hinder the process of giving services to real emergency psychiatric patients.