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International Journal of Social Psychiatry
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Evaluating the Use of a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit: Is Ethnicity a Risk Factor for Admission?

Anthony Feinstein

Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; Department of Psychiatry, Room FG38, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M4N 3M5 Tel: (416)480-4216; Fax: (416)480-4613; ant.feinstein{at}utoronto.ca

Frank Holloway

Westways Resource Centre and Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, de Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AX United Kingdom.

Objective: This paper presents a descriptive study, undertaken in 1993, of a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) serving a deprived inner-city area, investigating the role of ethnicity as a risk factor for admission to the unit.

Methods: Clinical and demographic data were collected on consecutive admission to a PICU. Global Assessment of Function Scale scores were rated on admission and at discharge from the unit.

Results: The majority of patients were male (63%) and the commonest DSM-IV diagnoses were schizophrenia (42%) and bipolar affective disorder (24%). Average length of stay was 13 days with patients making significant improvement in functioning during their stay. Fifty-five percent of PICU admissions came from ethnic minorities (compared with 25.6% of total hospital admissions and 20.9% of the local catchment area population aged between 16 and 65 years). There was no evidence that ethnic minority patients were being inappropriately admitted to the PICU.

Conclusions: It is likely that a variety of factors contributed to the high rate of PICU admission amongst ethnic minority patients, including an increased prevalence of major mental illness and more frequent cannabis abuse.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 48, No. 1, 38-46 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/002076402128783073
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L. Bowers, D. Jeffery, H. Bilgin, M. Jarrett, A. Simpson, and J. Jones
Psychiatric Intensive Care Units: a Literature Review
International Journal of Social Psychiatry, January 1, 2008; 54(1): 56 - 68.
[Abstract] [PDF]