Description of Sociodemographic Variables of Inward Psychiatric Patients Coming from an International Airport

Abstract

Introduction:

Ramón y Cajal Hospital is the reference medical centre for Madrid-Barajas airport. Passengers arriving at the airport who need medical assistance are brought to this hospital. A percentage of these passengers require psychiatric evaluation and frequently need to be admitted into the ward for a certain length of time.

Objective:

Perform a descriptive analysis of the socio-demographic and clinical variables of inward psychiatric patients referred from Madrid-Barajas airport.

Methods:

Revise retrospectively clinical histories of inward psychiatric patients referred from Madrid-Barajas airport in the last 5 years.

Data is analyzed using the SPSS software 15.0 version.

Results:

We collected 99 patients, 54 of them (54.5%) are males. The 38.4% of the sample is in the age range between 25 and 34 years, and the 26.3% are between 35 and 44 years old. The most frequent countries of origin are European countries (57.6% of the sample). 28 patients of that group (49.1%) are Spanish citizens. Other 26% percent of the patients are from Centre or South-America. The most common syndromic diagnosis at discharge is psychotic disorder (62.6%) followed by affective disorder (22.2%).

Conclusion:

We can deduce from these data that the usual patient referred from Madrid-Barajas airport to the emergencies department for psychiatric attention is a male, between 25 and 34 years of age, from a European country, with a psychotic disorder that usually ends up in an admission into the psychiatric hospitalization unit.