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Informal psychiatric patients requesting discharge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Robin McGilp ,
Brian Kidd ,
Cameron Stark  and
Tom Henderson
Robin McGilp
Affiliation:
Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Dundee DD2 5NF
Brian Kidd
Affiliation:
Southern General Hospital, Glasgow G51 4TF
Cameron Stark
Affiliation:
Argyll and Clyde Health Board
Tom Henderson
Affiliation:
Bellsdkye Hospital, Falkirk FK5 4SF
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A retrospective investigation of case-notes compared 54 incidents of informal psychiatric in-patients being detained in hospital on an emergency basis with 66 incidents of discharge against medical advice (AMA). The characteristics of the two groups were compared. Detained patients were more likely to have been detained previously, to be suffering from a psychotic illness, and to have threats of violence or self-harm mentioned in their case-notes. AMA patients were more likely to have a history of substance abuse but were no more likely than the detained group to have been discharged AMA in the past. The results suggest that psychiatrists in this hospital are using current legislation on detention appropriately.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , April 1994 , pp. 209 - 211
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

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