[Major depressive disorders and psychiatric emergencies: a naturalistic study on crisis intervention relevance]

This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of introducing crisis intervention patterns in the emergency unit of a general hospital on the number of admissions and outpatient follow-ups for patients with major depressive disorder.

The study included all patients with major depressive disorder (DSM-IV criteria) who visited the psychiatric emergency unit in a general hospital during two 8-month periods: before (425 patients) and after (436 patients) crisis interventions were introduced.

After crisis interventions were introduced, the voluntary admission rate decreased significantly (from 17.9% to 12.4%), while the number of outpatient follow-ups increased (from 82.1% to 86.2%). Borderline personality disorder was associated with a significant reduction of the admission rate (27.8% against 38.2%), while the admission rate for patients with depressive disorder with psychotic features did not decline after crisis interventions. Crisis interventions were more effective on women.

These outcomes suggest the relevance of crisis intervention in psychiatric emergency settings to improve the management of patients with major depressive disorder. Crisis intervention fosters outpatient multimodal follow-up rather than admission in a psychiatric setting.