Epidemiología de la Urgencia Psiquiátrica en el Instituto Psiquiátrico "Dr. José Horwitz": Un nuevo estudio comparativo

introduction: a psychiatric emergency is any alteration of affection, thought or behavior that may cause harm to others or to the same consultant. these consultations have increased over the last years. objectives: determine the prevalence of the various pathologies, describing their distribution according to sex, age, area of residence, marital status, occupation, health insurance, and referral in psychiatric emergency consultations at "dr. josé horwitz" hospital of santiago, and to compare these results with previously published studies in the same center. material and method: we used a representative sample of 1999 cases, chosen randomly from consultations held between july 1,2005 and june 30,2006. diagnoses were grouped according to the nomenclature of the icd-10. results: 48.7% of the consultations were carried out by male patients and. average age of consultation was 39. 76.7% of consultations were carried out in daytime. the 48.3% of people who consulted didn't have any occupation. 48% were singles. abuse of substances and alcohol, schizoid, afective and neurotic disorders congregate 73.9% of total consultations. the most prevalent were the disorders associated with abuse of substances and alcohols with a 19.7% overall. autoagressive behaviors (74%) and affective disorders (74%) were associated with females, while abuse of substances and alcohol was associated with males (76%). discussion: schizoid disorders have proportionally declined in importance over the years. in contrast, abuse of substances and alcohol, and affective disorders have increased their frecuency. suggestions are made to face the new epidemiological profile.