Abstract
BackgroundThe characteristics of people admitted to psychiatric wards act as one of the indicators of the performance of the service system as a whole. The characteristics of these people and how they are referred to psychiatric hospitals vary in different communities. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with mental disorders who were referred to Zare Hospital in Sari, the capital of Mazandaran province in the north of Iran, in 2020, based on their referral sources in order to better provide a health care system.ResultsThe mean age of patients (male = 827, female = 293) was 38.25 ± 11.88. 84.2% were referred by family, 12.7% by judicial authorities, 1.7% by police, 0.9% by themselves, and 0.5% by other sources. The most common cause of referrals in all cases was aggression, and the most common diagnosis class was psychotic disorders with the highest frequency in the family referral group. About 21% of patients had methamphetamine abuse, of which about 20% were referred by the court and police.ConclusionsThe high prevalence of aggression and substance abuse raises the need to set up special services for such patients with the cooperation of mental health professionals, judicial authorities, and the police.
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