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A 7 Year Summary of Emergency Department Visits by Patients With Mental Health Disorders

OBJECTIVES: Emergency departments (EDs) have been increasingly utilized over time for psychiatric care. While multiple studies have assessed these trends in nationally representative data, few have evaluated these trends in state-level data. This investigation seeks to understand the mental health-r...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brathwaite, Danielle, Waller, Anna E., Gaynes, Bradley N., Stemerman, Rachel, Deselm, Tracy M., Bischof, Jason J., Tintinalli, Judith, Brice, Jane H., Bush, Montika
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8863870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35222127
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.831843
Descripción
Sumario:OBJECTIVES: Emergency departments (EDs) have been increasingly utilized over time for psychiatric care. While multiple studies have assessed these trends in nationally representative data, few have evaluated these trends in state-level data. This investigation seeks to understand the mental health-related ED burden in North Carolina (NC) by describing trends in ED visits associated with a mental health diagnosis (MHD) over time. METHODS: Using data from NC DETECT, this investigation describes trends in NC ED visits from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2014 by presence of a MHD code. A visit was classified by the first listed MHD ICD-9-CM code in the surveillance record and MHD codes were grouped into related categories for analysis. Visits were summarized by MHD status and by MHD category. RESULTS: Over 32 million ED visits were recorded from 2008 to 2014, of which 3,030,746 (9.4%) were MHD-related visits. The average age at presentation for MHD-related visits was 50 years (SD 23.5) and 63.9% of visits were from female patients. The proportion of ED visits with a MHD increased from 8.3 to 10.2% from 2008 to 2014. Annually and overall, the largest diagnostic category was stress/anxiety/depression. Hospital admissions resulting from MHD-related visits declined from 32.2 to 18.5% from 2008 to 2014 but remained consistently higher than the rate of admissions among non-MHD visits. CONCLUSION: Similar to national trends, the proportion of ED visits associated with a MHD in NC has increased over time. This indicates a need for continued surveillance, both stateside and nationally, in order to inform future efforts to mitigate the growing ED burden.