[Gerontopsychiatric treatment in comparison between integrated management at a university and separated management at a district hospital. 1: Patient characteristics].

OBJECTIVE

We wanted to study differences between geriatric psychiatric patients and their management in an integrated (with other adult age groups) care in the University Psychiatric Hospital (PUK) compared to those in a separated (only according to age) care in the Psychiatric State Hospital (LKH), which together treat all psychiatric inpatients in Goettingen, Germany.

METHOD: We performed standardized chart reviews of randomly selected groups of patients, who had been treated in the PUK (n = 151) and the LKH (n = 145) in the years 1991 and 1992.

RESULTS

The LKH patients were significantly older (74.8 +/- 8.7 y versus 70.3 +/- 8.3 y), more often living alone and/or without children. 31.9% of them were living in a nursing home compared to 6.5% of the PUK patients. Psychic disorders had not shown up before old age in 55.7% of all cases. 50.4% of the patients were in a psychiatric hospital for the first time. The majority of the patients (65.6%) had not been investigated by a psychiatrist before admission.

CONCLUSIONS

More socially handicapped patients were treated in the LKH. For most cases, the hospital treatment had been the first psychiatric treatment at all.