The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in general hospital inpatients

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in a sample of medical and surgical inpatients in an Australian general hospital. Using the 60-item General Health Questionnaire, the estimated prevalence was 30% (previous studies have yielded estimates generally between 20 and 50%). The prevalence of morbidity was significantly higher in medical (45%) than in surgical (23%) inpatients. Twelve percent of patients (20% of medical patients and 8% of surgical patients) satisfied DSM-Ill criteria for a current Major Depressive Episode. Anxiety scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were higher than those reported in general population samples. There were no signif..