[The adolescent psychiatric clientele in a district psychiatric center]

This study is retrospective and based on the charts of 44 adolescents (age 17-22) admitted to a Danish community psychiatric centre during the first 32 months after the opening of the centre. The social status of the adolescents, reasons for admission, previous treatment and need for psychiatric treatment are presented. The adolescents were generally a little older than a typical adolescent psychiatric clientele, and comparatively many of them had rather mild psychiatric conditions. A characteristic feature of these patients was a certain instability in their contact to the centre. Although many of them had long-lasting basic disabilities (e.g. personality disorders), only a few of them achieved a stable treatment alliance with the ward. This indicates difficulties of integrating an adolescent clientele in a community psychiatric centre that primarily takes care of adult patients.