[Descriptive analysis of the admission of minors into a psychiatric unit]

The admission of minors into adult psychiatric units is a problem and is due to the lack of adequate resources and epidemiology data.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of minors that were admitted into the Short-Stay Psychiatric Hospitalisation Unit of Caceres, Spain.

A retrospective, observational, and descriptive study was conducted on a sample of patients between 12 and 18 years-old admitted to the Psychiatric Unit. The study period was between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2018.

A total of 79 patients, with a mean age of 15.72 (± 1.65) years, were included. Almost all of them (93.6%) had a personal psychiatric history. The most common diagnoses at discharge in males were disruptive, impulse-control and conduct disorders, and mood disorders in females. A history of substance consumption was present in 40.6%, and was more common in males, which led to a worse prognosis. The mean stay was 5.4 (± 4.7) days. Prolongation of the mean stay was associated with a history of previous psychiatric admissions, the number of diagnoses at discharge, a greater number of drugs at discharge, and those that received long-acting injectable antipsychotic drugs (p < 0.005 in all cases).

The study identified the sociodemographic and clinical profile of the minor admitted to the Psychiatric Unit, and how the hospital stay was associated with previous psychiatric history, as well as diagnostic and clinical complexity.