New admissions to a psychiatric ward in a general hospital

A study of 343 new patients in the first psychiatric department in a general hospital in Singapore revealed a large proportion (40%, n = 137) of neurotic patients, especially neurotic depressives (n = 76). The next largest group is the non-organic psychoses 35% (n = 120), most of which were schizophrenic psychoses (n = 73). The other major diagnostic groups were adjustment or acute stress reactions, alcohol or drug dependence and personality disorders. The neurotic patients were generally older than the psychotic patients at the time of admission (p less than 0.02). More of them were married (62.7%) compared with the psychotics of whom 51.5% remained unmarried (p less than 0.02). Comparison between neurotic depressives and manic-depressive psychotics should have no difference in sex ratio and marital status. However, the duration of admission for the latter was longer.