응급실 내원 정신과 환자의 1979년과 1989년 비교

Comparison of Psychiatric Patients Visiting the Emergency Room ; 1979 vs. 1989

The purpose of this report is to compare the charateristics of emergency patients visiting the emergency room during 1979 and 1989. The authors compared a total 110 psychiatric patients who visited the emergency room of the National Medical Center during one year beginning on January 1，1979 with a total of 368 psychiatric patients who visited the same emergency room during one year beginning on January 1，1989，and we came to the following results. 1. The changed aspects from a statistical point of view were 1) Total num ber of patients was more than doubled, and the num ber of all psychiatric patients was nearly doubled. 2) M ore patients visited the emergency room at night rather than in the day. 3) There was an increase of male patients in their thirties and a decrease of male patients in their twenties. 4) There was diagnosis of a tendency towards a decline in orgnaic brain syndrome and a tendency towards an increase in personality disorder. 5) Less patients were admitted and more patients were tranfered either to the other depantm ent or to the closed ward. 2. The distribution according to sex, residential area, season and symptom was not changed. Female patient age distribution was unchanged. The proportion of neurotic disorder and that of psychotic disorder remained same. The rate of referral for out-patient treatm ent was unchanged