Psychiatric morbidity in a general medical ward. Hong Kong's experience

Abstract

The psychiatric morbidity of a general hospital's male medical ward in Hong Kong was studied using a one-stage single-rater method. Medical diagnoses were made according to ICD-9 on 91.5% of patients and 24% were diagnosed with DSM-III. The most common mental disorders included substance use disorder, dementia, and delirium. Of all the patients, 8.5% were not medically diagnosable and 5.3% were given only psychiatric diagnoses, the majority of which were substance use disorders.