Objective: To determine the pattern of presentations and characteristics of patients at a psychiatric emergency services facility.
Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2016 at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, and comprised all patients presenting to the departmental emergency services. Data was documented on a pre designed semi-structured proforma, and analysed using SPSS 22.
Results: Of the 316 cases, 162(51.3%) were males and 154(48.7%) were females. The overall mean age was 30.78+/- 13.09 years (range: 8-80 years). Psychiatric emergencies comprised suicidal attempt, excitement, violence, altered sensorium, altered/ inappropriate behaviour and extrapyramidal symptoms / acute dystonia together constituting for 123(38.9%) of the total presentations, while there were 20(6.33%) cases of hysterical fits and 6(1.89%) with acute anxiety symptoms. Overall, 56(17.7%) subjects were found to have no psychiatric diagnosis, and 46(81.5%) of these were referred cases.
Conclusions: Non-emergency visits constituted high percentage of emergency presentation.
Keywords: Psychiatry, Emergencies, Referral, Violence, Dystonia.