Rates of sexually transmitted diseases among patients in a psychiatric emergency service

This study sought to estimate the prevalence of non-HIV sexually transmitted diseases among patients admitted to a psychiatric emergency service and to identify characteristics that might place members of this population at increased risk of acquiring these diseases.

Hospital medical records and records of public health departments' venereal disease control sections were retrospectively reviewed to determine if patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric emergency service at a large urban public hospital had been tested for syphilis, gonorrhea, trichomonas, chlamydia, or herpes simplex in the 12 months before admission and whether the tests were positive. Data on patients' demographic and clinical characteristics were also collected.

Of 426 consecutive patients studied, 214 (50.2 percent) were tested for one or more non-HIV sexually transmitted diseases. Forty of those patients (18.7 percent) had positive tests. The rates of syphilis and gonorrhea among the patients were significantly higher than those estimated for the city and state where the study was done and significantly higher than the national estimate. Patients whose tests were positive did not differ significantly from those with negative tests in presenting psychiatric symptoms or diagnosis.

An alarmingly high rate of non-HIV sexually transmitted diseases was found among patients treated in a psychiatric emergency service. However, no particular clinical subpopulations at increased risk for acquisition of these diseases could be identified.