Drop in Number of Psychiatric admissions

The latest report on psychiatric units' activity from the Health Research Board (HRB) has revealed that the number of admissions to Irish psychiatric units and hospitals continued to fall in 2005.

Admissions came down from 22,400 in 2004 to 21,253 admissions in 2005, demonstrating a decrease of 5.1%. 72% of all admissions were re-admissions.

Non-voluntary admissions did not show any decline and it represented 11% of all admissions and 12% of first admissions. 21,265 discharges and 229 deaths were recorded in psychiatric units and hospitals in 2005.

Only 4% of admissions to private hospitals were non-voluntary.

Dr Dermot Walsh, Principal Investigator at the HRB said that the commencement of Part three of the Mental Health Act (2001) this month has introduced the independent review of detention of involuntary patients.

He said, 'It will be of considerable interest to determine whether this development will reduce the proportion of patients admitted involuntarily in future years.'

The overall statistics have revealed that:

Men account for just over half of all admissions (51%) and first admissions (55%). Statistics also showed that depressive disorders accounted for almost one-third (31%) of all admissions, schizophrenia accounted for 20%, alcoholic disorders for 14% and mania accounted for 13%.

Source-Medindia
NLA