Psychotic disorders versus other psychiatric diagnoses in consultation-liaison psychiatry: 10 years of a single-center experience

Introduction. The clinical management of patients with psychotic disorders (PDs) can be particularly complex if it takes place in the context of consultation-liaison psychiatry (CLP) services within a general hospital. However, there are few studies specifically investigating the acute treatment procedures for these patients in CLP settings. Objectives. To examine the characteristics of a sample of inpatients with a primary PD referred to a CLP service over a 10-year period and to compare the clinical features of this subgroup with patients with other diagnoses (ODs). Materials and methods. Observational and descriptive study over a 10-year period (2005-2014) assessing prospectively adult inpatients admitted to non-psychiatric units of the University Clinical Hospital of Barcelona who were consecutively referred to our CLP service. We performed a post-hoc analysis to compare the clinical features between the subgroup of patients with PDs and the rest of patients who meet the criteria for ODs. Results. We requested 393 consultations for patients who either already had the diagnosis of a primary PD and 9,415 for patients with ODs. Our results showed that patients with PDs were younger than the patients with ODs, had a higher prevalence of somatic illnesses related with an unhealthy lifestyle (such as infectious, endocrine, or metabolic diseases), less frequency of cancer, and a need to receive a more intensive psychiatric care. Conclusions. Inpatients with PDs referred to CLP have different clinical features compared with those who met the criteria for ODs. They are a highly complex group with specific psychiatric care needs.