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Informal psychiatric patients requesting discharge

Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Dundee DD2 5NF

Brian Kidd, Registrar in Psychiatry

Southern General Hospital, Glasgow G51 4TF

Cameron Stark, Registrar in Public Health

Argyll and Clyde Health Board

Tom Henderson, Registrar in Psychiatry

Bellsdkye Hospital, Falkirk FK5 4SF

^* Correspondence

A retrospective investigation of case-notes compared 54 incidents of informal psychiatric in-patients being detained in hospital on an emergency basis with 66 incidents of discharge against medical advice (AMA). The characteristics of the two groups were compared. Detained patients were more likely to have been detained previously, to be suffering from a psychotic illness, and to have threats of violence or self-harm mentioned in their case-notes. AMA patients were more likely to have a history of substance abuse but were no more likely than the detained group to have been discharged AMA in the past. The results suggest that psychiatrists in this hospital are using current legislation on detention appropriately.