[Effect of diagnostic habits on the incidence of psychiatric diagnoses]

In this study, we analyzed the frequency of ICD-9-diagnoses in 2,868 inpatients (spanning 3 consecutive years) who had been admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Tübingen. "Paranoid schizophrenia" (15.8%), "endogenous monopolar depression" (11.2%), "alcohol dependency" (9.9%), "neurotic depression" (6.5%) and "schizoaffective psychosis" (5.3%) turned out to be the most frequently diagnosed illnesses. The diagnosis of 6 mental illnesses described more than 50% of our patient population. In a concurrent study physicians employed at the hospital filled out a questionnaire about their diagnostic style. According to the data physicians were not aware of their narrow diagnostic style. A comparison of physicians within each ward resulted in moderate diagnostic agreement insofar as their diagnoses was based on 4-digit-ICD-categories. When using 3-digit-diagnostic main categories, diagnostic agreement appeared to be higher.