Psychiatric co-morbidities and patients with head and spinal cord trauma. Effects on acute hospital care.

Three hundred twenty-one patients with traumatic head and spinal cord injuries were studied. Forty-two of these patients (13.1%) received psychiatric consultation services. Two types of consultation patients were identified--one receiving psychiatric consultation services in the acute-care hospital and one receiving psychiatric services in the post-acute care, long-term rehabilitation center. In order to assess the impact of psychiatric co-morbidities on hospital length of stay and charges, 40 consultation patients (23 acute and 17 rehabilitation) were matched to 87 control patients who received no psychiatric services. Matching was done on severity of injury, age, and sex. Psychiatric consultation cases had significantly longer stays than did matched controls. There were no differences on total charges.